i 


Columbia  (MnitJet^ftp 

THE  LIBRARIES 


GIVEN  BY 

Austin  P.    Evans 


Longitude"  West  0'  Longitude  East  10°  from  Green  wicii 


^     A^ 


PHYSICAL  AND  RACIAL 
MAP  OF  EUROPE 


S  b. 


0  100       200       300       400       500 
Names  of  races  and  peoples 

life  enclosed  in  brackets  () 
I [Areas  above  5.000  feet 

1  I  •'  ••  60U 
I  I  "  below  600 
I  1        *'         "       sea  level 


40 


THE  HISTORY  OF 

MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


BY 

LYNN  THORNDIKE,  Ph.D. 

Associate  Professor  of  History  in  Western  Reserve  University 


UNDER    THE    EDITORSHIP    OF 

JAMES  T.  SHOTWELL,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  History,  in  Columbia  University 


BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
®l!)e  Ritactfibe  pteis?  Cambtibge 


■  K 


COPYRIGHT,   1917,  BY  LYNN    THOKNDIKE 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


Gift 

l\astiY\  p.  fu^K?^ 

FEB  22  1957 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


a  J 

e 

c 

LD 

a) 


03 
CM 


TO   MY  FATHER 

REV.    EDWARD    ROBERT    THORNDIKE,    D.D. 

AND   MY   MOTHER 

ABBIE   BREWSTER   LADD  THORNDIKE 


PREFACE 

This  book  aims  to  trace  the  development  of  Europe  and 
its  civilization,  from  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire  to 
the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
college  student  and  the  general  reader.  It  is  almost  needless 
to  say  that  such  a  work  makes  little  claim  to  originality  in 
method  and  still  less  in  subject-matter,  which  it  has  shame- 
lessly borrowed  from  numerous  sources.  Indeed,  in  a  book 
of  this  sort  it  is  more  fitting  to  apologize  for  anything  new 
that  one  says  than  for  following  in  old  and  beaten  tracks. 
The  author,  of  course,  hopes  that  without  making  too 
radical  departures  he  has  introduced  some  improvement  in 
selection  and  presentation  of  material,  and  that  he  has 
made  few  mistakes  of  fact  and  interpretation. 

The  Table  of  Contents  indicates  the  general  plan  of  the 
volume,  which  is  to  treat  medieval  Europe  as  a  whole  and 
to  hang  the  story  upon  a  single  thread,  rather  than  to 
recount  as  distinct  narratives  the  respective  histories  of 
France,  England,  Germany,  Italy,  and  other  countries  of 
modern  Europe.  French  or  English  history  may  be  studied 
as  such  in  courses  and  books  so  labeled.  Moreover,  the 
modern  interest  in  the  national  state  has  usually  been  car- 
ried too  far  in  the  study  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Local  division, 
not  national  unity  and  central  government,  is  surely  the 
striking  feature  through  most  of  the  medieval  centuries. 

Nor  should  one  be  misled  by  the  influence  of  the  German 
historical  seminar  or  by  Bryce's  brilliant  essay  into  making 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  the  central  thread  of  medieval 
history.  Far  more  important  in  actual  life  than  the  ideal  of 
one  Roman  Empire  were  the  feudal  state  and  the  self-cen- 
tered town,  the  diversity  and  vigor  of  local  law  and  custom. 
But  it  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  importance  of 
the  pope  and  the  clergy  as  unifying  forces  in  medieval  civili- 
zation.   Consequently  several  chapters  are  devoted  to  the 


VI 


PREFACE 


Christian  Church,  and  some  mention  of  it  has  to  be  made  in 
almost  every  chapter. 

Inasmuch  as  emigrants  from  all  parts  and  from  all  races 
of  Europe  have  long  since  been  coming  to  the  United  States 
and  becoming  American  citizens,  it  has  seemed  worth  while 
to  include  the  states  and  racial  groups  of  central  and  east- 
ern Europe,  as  well  as  the  richer  medieval  history  of  those 
western  European  lands  whose  institutions  and  culture 
have  thus  far  had  the  greatest  influence  upon  our  own. 

In  conformity  with  present  tendencies  in  historical  writ- 
ing, economic  and  social  conditions  are  given  due  attention, 
and  many  minor  details  of  military  and  political  history  are 
omitted.  In  these  days  of  tottering  thrones  I  have  even  ven- 
tured to  lay  the  axe  at  the  root  of  absolutism  and  to  dis- 
pense with  genealogical  tables.  Contemporary  events  sadly 
remind  us  that  the  age  of  wars  is  not  past ;  but  they  have 
also  demonstrated  that  an  intensive  study  of  Caesar's  Com- 
mentaries and  the  tactics  of  Hastings  and  Crecy  is  of  little 
use  even  to  the  modern  military  specialist ;  while  they  have 
further  reminded  us  that  in  the  art  of  the  past  there  are 
precious  models  and  inspirations,  whose  loss  is  almost  irrep- 
arable. Since  man  is  a  reasoning  and  emotional  being,  it 
is  unfair  to  the  past  actors  and  uninteresting  to  the  present 
readers  of  history  merely  to  chronicle  events  without  some 
indication  of  the  ideas  and  ideals  behind  them  as  well  as 
of  the  personalities  that  produced  them.  But  discussion  of 
economic  and  intellectual  influences  should  not  be  carried 
so  far  as  to  reduce  the  narrative  of  events  in  political  history 
to  a  mere  skeleton.  If  wars  and  politics  are  to  be  discussed 
at  all,  they  should  be  treated  with  sufficient  fullness  to  in- 
sure clearness  and  interest. 

The  background  of  physical  geography  is  frequently  re- 
ferred to  and  described.  In  the  maps  the  aim  has  been  to 
omit  confusing  detail  and  to  keep  them  in  close  accord  with 
the  text.  As  a  rule  all  places  mentioned  in  the  text  and  no 
others  are  given  in  the  accompanying  maps.  Considerable 
space  has  been  devoted  to  the  Roman  Empire,  its  civiliza- 
tion, and  its  decline,  and  to  the  early  history  of  the  Chris- 


PREFACE  vii 

tian  Church.  These  matters  are  essential  preliminaries  to 
the  study  of  the  Middle  Ages.  I  have  also  dealt  frequently 
with  the  history  of  European  law  and  with  the  chief  medi- 
eval forms  of  government. 

As  an  undergraduate  the  author  received  high  grades  in  a 
course  in  English  history  without  the  thought  occurring  to 
him  that  the  statements  of  the  textbook  or  of  the  instruc- 
tor concerning  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  rested  on  any  less 
ample  and  solid  foundation  than  did  their  accounts  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  History  seemed  a  seamless  robe  instead 
of  a  worn  garment  full  of  holes  and  patches.  True  it  is  that  a 
textbook  or  general  history  is  chiefly  intended  to  tell  what  we 
do  know,  and  that  its  space  does  not  permit  detailed  discus- 
sion of  the  sources.  Yet  one  of  the  most  important  things 
for  the  student  or  reader  of  history  to  realize  is  the  old 
lesson  of  Socrates  that  there  are  many  things  which  we  do 
not  know  and  many  more  which  we  only  half  know.  There- 
fore in  the  introductory  chapter  I  have  discussed  history's 
task  and  obstacles,  and  throughout  the  volume  have  every 
now  and  then  informed  the  reader  briefly  as  to  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  the  source  material. 

But  a  stern  effort  has  been  made  to  avoid  fine  print  and 
footnotes,  which  in  this  kind  of  a  book  are  objectionable 
alike  from  the  typographical,  the  literary,  and  the  peda- 
gogical standpoint.  I  hope  that  all  quotations  are  so  marked, 
but  I  have  not  felt  it  necessary  to  mention  the  name  of  the 
author  in  each  case  at  the  bottom  of  the  page.  In  place  of 
cross-references  the  teacher  and  student  are  referred  to  the 
unusually  full  index,  which  is  intended  to  serve  somewhat^ 
the  same  purpose  that  a  vocabulary  does  in  the  teaching  of 
a  language.  In  the  text  I  have  rather  made  it  a  point  to 
repeat  the  names  of  important  men  and  places  as  often  and  '•■ 
in  as  many  historical  contexts  as  possible,  in  order  that  they 
may  gradually  grow  familiar  to  the  reader  and  in  order  that 
he  may  not  forget  them  when  he  has  once  learned  them.  By 
reference  to  the  index  one  can  tell  how  many  times  the  name 
or  topic  in  question  has  already  been  mentioned  or  discussed. 
The  index  should  also  prove  useful   for  topical  reviews. 


viii  PREFACE 

Ten  years  of  experience  in  teaching  medieval  history  to 
Freshman  sections  have  convinced  me  that  most  students 
who  enter  our  colleges  are  neither  wide  nor  trained  readers, 
and  are  at  a  loss,  if  thrown  upon  their  own  resources  into  a 
whole  volume  or  even  a  whole  chapter  of  the  average  his- 
torical work  available  for  outside  reading  in  addition  to  the 
textbook.  It  is  advisable  to  give  them  brief  specific  readings 
to  do,  and  specific  questions  to  answer  and  problems  to  work 
out  from  such  readings.  No  doubt  each  teacher  will  prefer 
for  the  most  part  to  make  his  own  selections  and  to  ask  his 
own  questions  on  such  reading.  He  may,  however,  find  sug- 
gestive the  listing  of  a  few  such  specific  readings  and  histori- 
cal exercises,  many  of  which  have  already  been  tried  out  in 
actual  teaching.  It  is  hoped  that  these  exercises,  listed  at 
the  end  of  the  chapters,  may  prove  still  more  welcome  to  the 
reader  who  has  not  the  advantage  of  personal  tuition,  but 
who  has  access  to  a  fair-sized  library.  Where  a  particular 
chapter  or  certain  pages  of  a  book  are  recommended,  this 
does  not  imply  that  the  rest  of  that  volume  is  to  be  es- 
chewed ;  it  is  simply  advice  where  to  begin.  Moreover,  these 
suggested  readings  are  distinctly  for  the  undergraduate  and 
general  reader,  not  for  the  advanced  student,  and  conse- 
quently many  important  historical  works  are  not  mentioned. 
A  brief  list  of  books  and  periodicals  where  fuller  biblio- 
graphical information  may  be  found  is  appended  at  the 
close  of  this  preface. 

Of  historical  works  and  articles  to  which  the  present 
volume  is  indebted  the  list  is  too  long  to  essay  here.  The 
attempt  has  been  made  —  without  yielding  to  new  theories 
and  hypotheses  which  have  not  yet  been  sufficiently  tested 
—  to  embody  the  results  of  recent  historical  scholarship. 
Much  use  has  been  made  of  such  works  as  Luchaire's  six 
volumes  on  Innocent  III,  Beazley's  Dawn  of  Modern  Geog- 
raphy, Workman's  The  Evolution  of  the  Monastic  Ideal,  and 
the  two  volumes  of  the  Cambridge  Medieval  History  which 
have  thus  far  appeared.  Some  passages  in  this  book  are  the 
result  of  my  own  study  of  the  sources  and  will  not  be  found 
covered  in  any  other  secondary  work. 


PREFACE 


IX 


A  textbook  is  a  fitting  place  in  which  to  remember  one's 
own  teachers.  Of  previous  historical  manuals  I  have  been 
most  influenced  by  the  brief  but  admirable  History  of  West- 
ern Europe  of  my  former  teacher,  James  Harvey  Robinson, 
—  a  work  which  I  have  used  for  many  years  as  a  textbook. 
Before  entering  Professor  Robinson's  well-known  course  in 
the  intellectual  history  of  Europe,  my  interest  in  the  history 
of  literature  and  philosophy  had  been  already  aroused  by 
C.  T.  Winchester  and  A.  C.  Armstrong.  The  parts  of  this 
volume  dealing  with  the  history  of  law  owe  much  to  the 
lectures  of  Munroe  Smith.  Some  of  the  historical  exercises 
were,  in  their  inception  at  least,  due  to  Henry  E.  Bourne, 
with  whom  I  have  worked  in  teaching  the  Freshman  history 
course  at  the  College  for  Women  of  Western  Reserve  Uni- 
versity. Other  colleagues.  Professors  H.  N.  Fowler,  S.  B. 
Platner,  and  J.  L.  BorgerhofT,  have  been  so  good  as  to  read 
and  criticize  certain  chapters  falling  within  their  respective 
special  fields,  and  Miss  Eleanor  Ferris  has  very  kindly  read 
galley  proof  for  the  entire  text.  Professor  J.  T.  Shotwell, 
under  whose  editorship  the  book  is  so  fortunate  as  to 
appear  and  whom  I  also  am  happy  to  count  as  a  former 
teacher,  has  read  the  text  in  manuscript,  made  a  number 
of  helpful  suggestions,  and  in  other  ways  aided  me  by  his 
cooperation  and  encouragement.  These  scholars,  however, 
should  not  be  held  responsible  for  any  of  the  faults  of  the 
book,  especially  since  in  a  few  cases  I  have  been  so  foolish  as 
not  to  follow  their  advice.  But  I  shall  be  fortunate,  indeed, 
if  others  accord  me  as  sympathetic  a  reading  as  theirs. 

Lynn  Thorndike. 
August  14,  igiy 


LIST  OF  GUIDES  IN  HISTORICAL 
READING 

HANDBOOKS 

Langlois,  Ch.  v.,  Manuel  dc  bibliographie  lustonque,  two  parts,  Paris, 

1 90 1  and  1904. 
Robinson,  J.  H..  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  Boston,  1904 
Thompson,  J.  VV.,  Reference  Studies  in  Medieval  History,  Chicago,  19 14 

ENCYCLOPEDIAS 

Pauly-Wissowa,  Realencyclopddie  der  classischen  Altertums-wissenschaft, 

as  yet  only  partially  completed 
Catholic  Encyclopccdia,  New  York,  191 2 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  Eleventh  edition 
Palgrave,  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  London,  1910 
Jewish  Encyclopcedia,  New  York,  1901 

Wage  and  Piercy,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,  Boston,  191 1 
Hughes,  Encyclopaedia  of  Islam,  London,  191 3 

PERIODICALS 

American  Historical  Review  English  Historical  Review 

Revue  Historique  Revue  des  Questions  Historiques 

Le  MoyenAge  Historische  Zeitschrift 

STANDARD   HISTORICAL  WORKS  CONTAINING 
BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

Gibbon,  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  edition  by  J.  B.  Bury, 

1897-1900 
Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vols,  i  and  li 
Lavisse,  E.,  Histoire  de  France,  1900-191 1 
Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France 
Jahrbikher  der  deutschen  Geschichte 

Hunt  and  Poole,  Political  History  of  England,  1905-19 10 
LosERTH,  J.,  Geschichte  des  Spdteren  Mittelalters  von  iigj  his  1492,  Munich 

and  Berlin,  1903 
De  Wulf,  M.,  History  of  Medieval  Philosophy,  1909 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

461-431  B.C.        Age  of  Pericles 
451-449  B.C.        Twelve  Tables  of  Roman  Law 
336-323  B.C.         Reign  of  Alexander  the  Great 

31  B.C.-14  A.D.  Reign  of  Augustus  Caesar  and  foundation  of  the  Roman 
Empire 
A.D.  70  Destruction  of  Jerusalem 
98  Germania  of  Tacitus 
98-117  Reign  of  Trajan;  Roman  Empire  at  its  greatest  extent 
161-180  Reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius;  signs  of  decline 
227  Persian  Kingdom  replaces  the  Parthian 
251   Decius  defeated  and  slain  by  the  Goths 
284-305  Reign  of  Diocletian 

325  Council  of  Nicaea  called  by  Constantine  the  Great 
378  Battle  of  Adrianople 
395  Death  of  Theodosius  the  Great 
410  Sack  of  Rome  by  Alaric 
413-426  The  City  of  God  of  Augustine 

419  Kingdoms  of   West  Goths  and    Burgundians  in  southwestern 
and  southeastern  Gaul 

438  The  Theodosian  Code 

439  Carthage  captured  by  the  Vandals 
440-461   Pope  Leo  the  Great 

c.  450  Britain  invaded  by  the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes 
451   Battle  of  the  Catalaunian  Fields  or  Ch&lons 
455  Valentinian  III  assassinated 
Rome  sacked  by  the  Vandals 
466-484  Reign  of  Euric,  King  of  the  West  Goths;  conquest  of  Spain 
begun 
476  Transition  from  the  Roman  to  the  Byzantine  Empire 
481-51 1   Reign  of  Clovis,  King  of  the  Franks 
493-526  Reign  of  Theodoric,  the  East  Goth,  in  Italy 
518-565  Reigns  of  Justin  and  Justinian 
529  The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict 

533  The  Digest  or  Pandects  of  Justinian 

534  Byzantine  conquest  of  North  Africa  from  the  Vandals 
Prankish  conquest  of  the  Burgundian  Kingdom 

555  Byzantine  conquest  of  Italy  from  the  East  Goths 
565  Mission  of  St.  Columba  to  lona,  Scotland 
568  Lombards  invade  Italy 

Avars  invade  central  Europe 
582  Fall  of  Sirmium 
590-604  Pope  Gregory  the  Great 


xiv  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

597  Mission  of  St.  Augustine  to  Kent 

6io  Accession  of  Heraclius  in  the  Byzantine  Empire 

615  Death  of  St.  Columban  in  northern  Italy 

622  Hegira  of  Mohammed 
Etymologies  of  Isidore 
629-639  Prankish  territories  reunited  under  Dagobert 
632-651   Mohammedan  conquest  of  Syria,  Egypt,  Persia 

661  Ommiad  dynasty  founded 

664  Synod  of  Whitby 

687  Battle  of  Testry 

698  Carthage  permanently  captured  by  the  Mohammedans 
71 1-7 1 3  Mohammedan  conquest  of  Spain 

718  Mission  of  Boniface  to  Germany 

726  Iconoclastic  decree  of  Leo  III,  Byzantine  Emperor 

731  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Bede 

732  Battle  of  Tours 

750  Abbassid  dynasty  founded 

751  Ravenna  captured  by  the  Lombards 
Carolingian  dynasty  founded  by  Pepin 

755  Ommiad  Emirate  of  Cordova 
768-814  Reign  of  Charlemagne 

774  End  of  the  Lombard  Kingdom 
787  Danish  invasions  begin  in  England 
800  Imperial  coronation  of  Charlemagne 
827  Saracen  invasion  of  Sicily  begins 

842  The  Strassburg  Oaths 

843  The  Treaty  of  Verdun 

c.  859  Rurik  becomes  Grand  Prince  of  Russia 
864  Conversion  of  Boris  I  of  Bulgaria 

869  Eighth  (Ecumenical  Council  at  Constantinople 

870  The  Treaty  of  Mersen 

871-901   Reign  of  Alfred  the  Great  in  England 
885  Paris  besieged  by  the  Northmen 
887  Deposition  of  the  Emperor  Charles 
c.  896  Invasions  of  the  Magyars  begin 
904  Saloniki  seized  by  the  Saracens 

909  Fatimite  dynasty  founded  in  North  Africa 

910  Abbey  of  Cluny  founded 
911-912  Origin  of  Normandy 

929  Caliphate  of  Cordova  founded  by  Abd-er-Rahman  III 

934  Kingdom  of  Aries  begins 

955  Battle  of  the  Lechfeld 

962  Otto  the  Great  crowned  Holy  Roman  Emperor 

969  Egypt  conquered  by  the  Fatimites 

975  Death  of  Edgar  the  Peaceful,  King  of  England 

980-1037  Avicenna 

987  Hugh  Capet  founds  the  Capetian  dynasty 

997-1038  Reign  of  St.  Stephen  of  Hungary 

999-1003  Pope  Sylvester  II  (Gerbert) 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xv 

c.  looo  Discovery  of  Vlnland 

Oldest  manuscript  of  Beowulf 

1 002  Death  of  Almansor 

1013  Danish  kings  in  England 
1015-1087  Constantinus  Africanus 

1032  End  of  the  Kingdom  of  Aries 

1036  End  of  the  Caliphate  of  Cordova 
1036-1067  Baldwin  V,  Count  of  Flanders 
1039-1056  Henry  III,  Holy  Roman  Emperor 

1040  Death  of  Foulques  Nerra,  Count  of  Anjou 

1057  End  of  Macedonian  dynasty  in  the  Byzantine  Empire 

1059  Robert  Guiscard,  Duke  of  Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  as  the 
Pope's  vassal 
1063-1118  Cathedral  at  Pisa  built 

1066  Norman  conquest  of  England 

1 07 1   Battle  of  Manzikert 
1073-1085  Pope  Gregory  VH  (Hildebrand) 

1078  Jerusalem  captured  by  the  Turks 
1079-1 142  Abelard 
1081-1 118  Reign  of  Alexius  Comnenus,  Byzantine  Emperor 

1085  Toledo  captured  by  Alfonso  VI  of  Castile  and  Leon 

1086  Battle  of  Zalaca 

1086-1127  William  X,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  first  known  troubadour 
1095  Pope  Urban  II  proclaims  the  First  Crusade 

Foundation  of  Portugal 
1099  Jerusalem  stormed  by  the  crusaders 
1108-1137  Reign  of  Louis  VI,  the  Fat,  King  of  France 
Roman  law  taught  by  Irnerius  at  Bologna 
Questions  about  Nature  of  Adelard  of  Bath 
1122  Concordat  of  Worms 
1126^1198  Averroes 

1137  Union  of  Aragon  and  Barcelona 

1143  Liibeck  founded 

1144  Fall  of  Edessa 

c.  1150  Decretum  of  Gratian;  Sentences  of  Peter  Lombard 

1 154  Henry  II,  King  of  England,  founds  the  Plantagenet  or  Angevin 
dynasty  with  vast  continental  fiefs 
End  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
Geography  of  Edrisi 
1163  Foundation-stone  of  the  Cathedral  of  Notre-Dame  in  Paris 
laid  by  Pope  Alexander  III 

1170  Murder  of  Thomas  Becket 

1171  Saladin  overthrows  the  Fatimite  dynasty  in  Egypt 
1176  Battle  of  Legnano 

1180-1223  Reign  of  Philip  II,  Augustus,  King  of  France 

1183  Peace  of  Constance 

1187  Jerusalem  captured  by  Saladin 

1198-1216  Pope  Innocent  III 

1204  Latin  Empire  of  Constantinople  established 


xvi  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1208  Albigensian  Crusade 

1 2 10  Study  of  Aristotle's  works  on  natural  philosophy  forbidden  at 

the  University  of  Paris 
12 1 2  Battle  of  Navas  de  Tolosa 

Children's  Crusade 
1215  Fourth  Lateran  Council 

Magna  Carta 

1220  Amiens  Cathedral  begun 

1 22 1  Death  of  St.  Dominic 
1226  Death  of  St.  Francis 

1226-1270  Reign  of  St.  Louis  in  France 

1228  Teutonic  Knights  called  in  to  conquer  East  Prussia 
c.  1235  The  Romance  of  tJie  Rose  begun  by  William  of  Lorris 
1241   Mongol  invasion  of  Europe 

Choir  of  Rheims  Cathedral  completed 
1250  Death  of  Frederick  II,  Holy  Roman  Emperor 
1252-1284  Reign  of  Alfonso  the  Wise  of  Castile 
1256-1273  Interregnum  in  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
1258  Bagdad  sacked  by  the  Mongols 
Proinsions  of  Oxford 

1260  Cathedral  of  Chartres  consecrated 

1 261  Byzantine  Empire  restored 
1265  Simon  de  Montfort's  Parliament 

c.  1266  Opus  Maius  of  Roger  Bacon 
1268  Hohenstaufen  line  extinct 

Charles  of  Anjou  conquers  Naples 
1271-1295  Marco  Polo  in  the  Far  East 

1273  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  elected  Holy  Roman  Emperor 

1274  Death  of  Thomas  Aquinas 
1282  Sicilian  Vespers 

1284  Pisa  defeated  by  Genoa 

First  ducat  coined  at  Venice 
1285-1314  Reign  of  Philip  IV,  the  Fair,  King  of  France 
1 29 1  League  of  the  Three  Forest  Cantons 
1293  Noble  families  of  Florence  disqualified  for  office 

1295  The  Model  Parliament  of  Edward  I 

1296  Clericis  laicos 

1297  Membership  in  the  Grand  Council  of  Venice  becomes  heredi- 

tary 

1302  First  meeting  of  the  Estates  General 
Battle  of  Courtrai 

Exile  of  Dante 

1303  Humiliation  of  Pope  Boniface  VIII  at  Anagni 
Conciliator  of  Peter  of  Abano 

1308  Papacy  at  Avignon 

1314  Battle  of  Bannockburn 

1315  Battle  of  Morgarten 
1 32 1   Death  of  Dante 

1324  Defensor  Pads  of  Marsiglio  of  Padua 


.       .  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xvii 

1328  End  of  the  direct  Capetians 

Battle  of  Cassel 
1337  Opening  of  the  Hundred  Years  War 

Death  of  Giotto 

1340  Battle  of  Sluys 

1 34 1  Petrarch  crowned  poet  laureate  at  Rome  by  King  Robert  of 

Naples 

1345  Jacob  Artevelde  murdered 

1346  Battle  of  Crecy 
1348  The  Black  Death 

1 350-1 355  War  between  Genoa  and  Venice 
1351   The  Laurentiayi  Portolano 
1353  The  Ottoman  Turks  enter  Europe 

1356  The  Golden  Bull 
Battle  of  Poitiers 

1357  Revolutionary  movement  in  Paris 

1358  The  Jacquerie 
1360  Treaty  of  Bretigny 

1363  Origin  of  the  House  of  Burgundy 

1367  War  of  theHanseatic  League  against  Denmark  and  Norway 
1368-1370  Mongols  are  expelled  from  China 

1369  Charles  V,  the  Wise,  King  of  France,  renews  the  Hundred 
Years  War  with  success 

1372  Battle  of  La  Rochelle 

1376  The  Good  Parliament 

1378  The  Great  Schism  begins 

Uprising  of  the  Ciompi  in  Florence 
1378-138 1  War  between  Genoa  and  Venice 

1 38 1  The  Peasants'  Revolt  in  England 

1382  Disenfranchisement  of  the  Ciompi 
Battle  of  Roosebek 

1384  Death  of  John  Wyclif 

1386  Union  of  Poland  and  Lithuania  under  the  Jagellons 

1389  Battle  of  Kosovo 

1396  Battle  of  Nicopolis 

1397  Union  of  Kalmar 

1399  Richard  H  deposed;  Lancastrian  dynasty  in  England 
1401-1429  Masaccio 

1402  Battle  of  Angora 

1405  Venice  acquires  Verona  and  Padua 

1407  Louis  of  Orleans  murdered  by  John,  Duke  of  Burgundy 

1409  Council  of  Pisa 
1414-1417  Council  of  Constance 

1415  Battle  of  Agincourt 
Ceuta  captured  by  Portugal 

1416  The  St.  George  of  Dona  telle 

1419  Hussite  W^ars  begin 

1420  Treaty  of  Troyes 

1429  Relief  of  Orleans  by  Joan  of  Arc 


xviii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1 431-1449  Council  of  Basel 

1435  Death  of  Duke  of  Bedford 

Duke  of  Burgundy  abandons  the  English  alliance 
Cosimo  de'  Medici  comes  into  power  in  Florence 
1435-1442  Alfonso  V  of  Aragon  and  Sicily  wins  the  Kingdom  of  Naples 
in  a  struggle  with  Ren6  of  Anjou 

1437  House  of  Hapsburg  becomes  practically  hereditary  in  the  Holy 

Roman  Empire 

1438  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges 
1438-1439  Council  of  Ferrara-Florence 

1444  Battle  of  V^arna 
c  1450  Invention  of  printing 

1 45 1  Francesco  Sforza  becomes  despot  of  Milan 

1452  Last  coronation  of  a  Holy  Roman  Emperor  at  Rome 

1453  Fall  of  Constantinople 

Close  of  the  Hundred  Years  War 
1455  Wars  of  the  Roses  begin 
1460  Death  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator 
1465  League  of  the  Public  Welfare  against  Louis  XI 
1469  Marriage  of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of  Castile 

1477  Death  of  Charles  the  Bold;  marriage  of  Mary  of  Burgundy  and 

Maximilian 

1478  Novgorod  captured  by  Ivan  III  of  Russia 

About  the  same  time  Russia  is  freed  from  the  Golden  Horde 
1485  Battle  of  Bosworth  Field;  Henry  VII  founds  the  Tudor  dy- 
nasty 
i486  Diaz  rounds  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
1492  Discovery  of  America 

Conquest  of  Granada 

Death  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici 
»         1494  Charles  VIII  invades  Italy 
1498  Vasco  da  Gama  reaches  India 

Execution  of  Savonarola 
1505  Michelangelo  called  to  Rome 
1508  League  of  Cambray  against  Venice 

Raphael  comes  to  Rome 
1 513  The  Prince  of  Machiavelli 
1 51 5  Battle  of  Marignano 
1 51 7  Luther  posts  his  Ninety  Five  Theses 
1519  Charles  V  elected  Holy  Roman  Emperor 

Death  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Study  of  History i 

II.  The  Roman  Empire 19 

III.  The  Barbarian  World  outside  the  Empire  ....  40 

IV.  The  Decline  of  the  Roman  Empire     ....     ^     .  60 
V.  The  Barbarian  Invasions 75 

VI.  "The  City  of  God" 95 

VII.  German  Kingdoms  in  the  West 117 

VIII.  Justinian  and  the  Byzantine  Empire 128 

IX.  Gregory  the  Great  and  Western  Christendom       .   154 
X.  The  Rise  and  Spread  of  Mohammedanism  .172 

XI.  The  Prankish  St.\te  and  Charlemagne 192 

XII.  The  Northmen  and  Other  New  Invaders     ....  216 

XIII.  The  Feudal  Land  System  and  Feudal  Society  .  232 

XIV.  Feudal  States  of  Europe 256 

XV.  The  Growth  of  the  Medieval  Church 280 

XVI.  The  Expansion  of  Christendom  and  the  Crusades     .  301 

XVII.  The  Rise  of  Towns  and  Gilds 327 

XVIII.  The  Italian  Cities 341 

XIX.  French,  Flemish,  English,  and  German  Towns       .     .  357 

XX.  The  Medieval  Revival  of  Learning 373 

XXI.  Medieval  Literature 397 

XXII.  The  Medieval  Cathedrals 416 

XXIII.  The  Church  under  Innocent  III 434 

XXIV.  Innocent  III  and  the  States  of  Europe      ....  455 
XXV.  The  Growth  of  National  Institutions  in  England    .  474 

XXVI.  The  Growth  of  Royal  Power  in  France      ....  490 


XX  CONTENTS 

XXVII.  The  Hundred  Years  War 511 

XXVIII.  Germany  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages 532 

XXIX.  Eastern  Europe  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages  .     .      .548 
XXX.  The  Papacy  and  its  Opponents  in  the  Fourteenth 

and  Fifteenth  Centuries 550 

XXXI.  The  Italian  Renaissance:  Politics  and  Humanism    .  576 
XXXII.  The  Italian  Renaissance:  Fine  Arts  and  Voyages 

OF  Discovery 5^7 

XXXIII.  The  Rise  of  Absolutism  and  of  the  Middle  Class  614 
Index 641 


MAPS  AND  PLANS 

1  Physical  and  Racial  Europe  (colored)     ....      Frontispiece 

2  The  Roman  Empire  (colored) i8 

3  Gaul  in  the  Fifth  Century 89 

4  The  Byzantine  Empire  Under  Justinian 137 

5  Ground-Plan  of  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia 144 

6  The  British  Isles  in  the  Seventh  Century 165 

7  The  Mohammedan  World  about  732 180 

8  The  Prankish  Empire 201 

9  The  Expansion  of  the  Northmen 224 

10  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  Southern  Italy  (colored)      .  262 

11  Feudal  France  (colored) 270 

12  Christian  Expansion  in  Spain  (colored) 304 

13  German  Eastward  Expansion 306 

14  The  Eastern  Mediterranean  during  the  Crusades       .     .317 

15  Towns  and  Trade  of  France  and  Flanders    .     .     .     .     .  359 

16  Ground-Plan  of  Rheims  Cathedral 420 

17  France  in  the  Early  Fourteenth  Century 509 

18  Rise  of  the  Swiss  Confederation  (colored) 542 

19  Hanseatic  League  and  Teutonic  Knights 545 

20  The  Mongol  Empire  and  Trade  Routes  to  the  Far  East 

(colored) 550 

21  Conquests  of  the  Ottoman  Turks 555 

22  Italy  in  the  Fifteenth  Century 579 

23  Charles  the  Bold  and  his  Neighbors 619 

24  Review  of  Medieval  Civilization  (colored) 640 


THE  HISTORY  OF 
MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   STUDY   OF   HISTORY 

History  has  to  do  with  the  past  of  humanity.  Every 
phase  of  man's  life  and  every  human  interest  of  the  present 
has  its  background  and  previous  development  Definition 
which  may  be  historically  considered.  We  study  ""^  ^'^^^''^ 
the  history  of  English  literature,  for  example,  or  we  may 
take  courses  in  universities  in  the  history  of  architecture, 
or  in  church  history,  or  in  the  history  of  diplomacy,  or  in 
the  history  of  education.  These  are  specialized  branches, 
devoted  each  to  some  one  department  of  human  affairs. 
History  in  the  broad  and  general  sense  includes  all  these 
particular  "histories"  and  many  others.  It  aims  to  under- 
stand and  to  picture  the  entire  life  of  the  various  races  and 
groups  of  mankind  at  all  times  throughout  the  course  of 
long  ages. 

We  sometimes  speak  of  the  history  of  plants  or  other 
non-human  beings — of  natural  history.  But  a  subject  like 
geology,  although  it  deals  with  changes  in  the  Natural 
earth's  crust,  and  surveys  a  period  of  appalling  histoo^' 
length  stretching  back  for  hundreds  of  thousands  and  geology 
of  years  before  the  advent  of  human  life  upon  this  planet, 
is  not  history  in  the  usual  sense,  since  it  is  not  directly  con- 
cerned with  mankind.  In  so  far,  nevertheless,  as  the  earth's 
surface,  being  man's  home,  affects  his  destiny  by  its  changes, 
geology  and  its  branch  geography  are  sciences  useful  to  the 
historian.  Geology  often  renders  a  special  service  to  his- 
torical chronology  by  enabling  one  to  tell  the  approximate 
age  of  human  remains  and  monuments  found  embedded  in 
different  strata  of  the  soil. 


2  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

It  is  evident  that  history  has  set  itself  a  tremendous  task 
in  trying  to  understand  and  picture  the  entire  past  life  of 
Vastness  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  times  in  all  places.  Probably  the 
and  difficulty  attempt  will  never  be  completely  successful. 
The  great  difficulty  is  that  history  is  dependent 
for  its  knowledge  of  the  men  of  the  past  upon  those  men 
themselves.  Since  they  are  dead  and  gone,  we  have  to 
depend  upon  the  writings,  buildings,  personal  effects,  works 
of  art,  and  other  monuments,  memorials,  and  memories 
which  they  have  left  behind  them.  For  many  periods  and 
regions  such  evidence  is  slight  indeed.  Another  trouble  is 
that  former  men  were  in  many  cases  not  interested  in  the 
same  things  that  we  are,  and  so  do  not  tell  us  what  we 
should  like  to  know.  They  loved  to  dwell  upon  wars;  we 
wish  to  hear  of  commerce  and  industry  in  times  of  peace. 
They  chronicled  the  deeds  of  kings;  we  want  to  know  the 
life  of  the  people.  They  took  it  for  granted  that  their  audi- 
ence would  understand  the  state  of  civilization,  since  they 
lived  in  the  midst  of  it.  Instead  of  describing  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  Roman  general  and  statesman,  Titus 
Flamininus,  in  his  biography  of  that  worthy,  Plutarch 
referred  his  readers  to  a  bronze  statue  of  him  at  Rome 
opposite  the  Circus  Maximus.  But  to-day  the  statue  has 
disappeared,  and  the  same  is  true  of  most  of  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  distant  past,  which  were  once  too 
familiar  for  historians  to  think  it  worth  while  to  mention 
them  to  their  readers. 

The  story  of  the  past  as  it  has  reached  us  is,  indeed,  in 
many  respects  like  the  ruin  of  some  ancient  amphithea- 
History  is  ter  or  medieval  monastery.  Some  sections  are 
like  a  ruin  better  preserved  than  others,  some  parts  are 
gone  entirely,  others  have  been  faultily  restored  by  later 
writers  who  failed  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the  original.  In 
-some  places  nothing  is  left  but  a  shapeless  core  of  vague 
^statements  or  a  few  bare  dates  and  facts.  Elsewhere  we  get 
a  vivid  glimpse  of  the  life  of  the  past  in  its  original  coloring. 
Sometimes  the  story  has  improved  with  age,  as  ruins  are 
sometimes  beautified  by  becoming  weather-beaten  or  over- 


THE  STUDY  OF   HISTORY  3 

grown  with  moss.  So  the  haze  of  romance,  or  the  glamour 
of  hero-worship,  or  the  mere  spell  of  antiquity,  add  to  the 
past  a  charm  that  is  history's  own. 

But  to-day  we  are  better  equipped  for  the  study  of  his- 
tory than  ever  before,  and  are  in  a  position  to  understand 
the  men  of  any  given  past  period  better  in  some    Recent 
respects  than  they  understood  themselves.    We    progress  in 
can  compare  them  with  men  of  other  lands  and 
times  of  whom  they  knew  nothing,  and  can  discover  the 
origin  of  some  of  their  customs  or  explain  the  true  meaning 
of  some  of  their  institutions.   The  great  advances  made  in 
the  natural  and  exact  sciences  in  modern  times  have  enabled 
man  to  comprehend  both  nature  and  himself  much  more 
correctly  than  before. 

For  instance,  it  is  but  recently  that  it  has  been  recog- 
nized how  long  man  has  inhabited  this  globe  and  how  far 
back  a  considerable  degree  of  civilization  can    ^g^  ^j 
be  traced.    Until  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth    man  on 

1       T-.-1  1'      1  r  1  1  •  this  earth 

century  the  Biblical  account  of  human  history 
was  generally  accepted  in  Christian  lands,  and  it  was  figured 
out  accordingly  that  God  created  Adam,  the  first  man,  just 
about  4004  B.C.  To-day  skulls  have  been  discovered  which 
scientists  assert  belonged  to  human  beings  who  lived  from 
two  to  four  hundred  thousand  years  ago;  and  it  is  certain 
that  flourishing  civilizations  already  existed  in  the  Nile  and 
Euphrates  Valleys  at  the  time  when  Adam  was  once  sup- 
posed to  have  first  opened  his  eyes  upon  a  newly  created 
world. 

A  distinction  used  to  be  made  between  prehistoric  and 
historic  men  and  periods.  Historians  were  unable  to  make 
use  of  any  except  oral  or  written  evidence.  upj.gjjigjori(,.' 
Where  no  such  evidence  was  procurable,  they    and  "his- 

.     ,  .     ,  ...  ,    ,  J     tone    ages 

spoke  of  the  period  as  prehistoric  and  beyond 
the  bounds  of  history.  To-day  learned  investigators  eagerly 
search  out  the  material  objects  which  men  have  left  behind 
and  draw  many  inferences  from  them  concerning  the  life 
and  character  of  their  former  owners.  Over  one  hundred 
sites  have  been  found  in  northern  Italy  of  villages  where 


4  THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

before  the  dawn  of  Roman  history  men  lived  on  platforms 
built  on  piles  in  water,  but  with  their  streets  and  canals  laid 
out  in  the  same  regular  fashion  as  the  later  Roman  military 
camps.  The  history  of  ancient  Greece  used  to  start  about 
750  B.C.,  and  all  before  that  was  reckoned  prehistoric,  and 
no  one  knew  whether  to  believe  in  the  Trojan  War  of 
Homer  or  not.  But  not  many  years  ago  excavations  were 
made  in  \^arious  spots  in  the  ancient  Greek  world  with  the 
result  that  the  city  of  Troy  of  which  Homer  sang  was  actually 
unearthed,  while  in  the  island  of  Crete  ruins  of  palaces 
were  disclosed  telling  plainly  of  luxury,  art,  and  commerce 
four  thousand  years  ago.  Modern  investigators  also  pick 
out  the  survivals  and  relics  of  earlier  periods  in  the  languages 
and  customs  of  later  times.  For  example,  the  resemblance 
between  the  word  for  "bride"  and  the  verb  meaning  "to 
steal  away"  in  Indo-Germanic  languages  is  taken  as  evi- 
dence of  marriage  by  capture  in  early  times,  and  another 
indication  pointing  in  the  same  direction  is  the  formality  of 
prearranged  abduction  and  mock  pursuit  in  early  German 
law.  In  Roman  religion  the  disabilities  of  the  priest  or  fla- 
men  of  Jupiter,  who  might  not  ride  horseback,  nor  have 
knots  in  his  clothing,  nor  touch  beans  and  she-goats,  nor 
trim  his  hair  and  nails  with  an  iron  instrument,  point  back 
to  a  primitive  period  of  magic  and  taboo  and  to  the  Bronze 
Age  before  iron  came  into  use. 

The  two  sciences  which  especially  investigate  the  so- 
called  prehistoric  period  are  archaeology  and  anthropology. 
Archaeology  Archaeologists  devote  themselves  primarily  to  the 
and  discovery  and  interpretation  of  works  of  art  and 

other  material  objects,  but  in  the  course  of  their 
investigations  they  often  come  upon  inscriptions  and  other 
written  records  previously  unknown.  For  instance,  gold 
coins  of  the  Visigothic  Kingdom  in  Spain  in  the  early 
Middle  Ages  give  us  the  names  of  several  kings  not  men- 
tioned elsewhere.  Similarly,  the  anthropologists,  who  study 
man  himself  and  are  interested  in  observing,  measuring, 
and  classifying  the  various  types  of  humanity,  do  not  con- 
fine their  attention  to  prehistoric  skeletons,   but  in  the 


THE  STUDY  OF   HISTORY  5 

numerous  savage  peoples  still  to-day  existent  in  many  parts 
of  the  world,  find  a  splendid  opportunity  to  observe  not 
only  varying  physical  types,  but  all  sorts  of  primitive 
customs,  religious  rites,  and  mental  attitudes.  Among  such 
tribes  they  can  compare  varying  gradations  of  civilization 
and  savagery,  which  in  other  parts  of  the  globe  disappeared 
very  likely  many  thousands  of  years  since,  and  they  may 
detect  there  the  germs  of  some  of  our  present-day  institu- 
tions, or  note  in  our  society  silly  survivals  from  those  savage 
days.  Thus  anthropology  and  archaeology  are  both  depart- 
ments of  history  in  the  broad  sense. 

Human  activity  and  hence  history  may  be  conveniently 
subdivided  under  five  captions:  political,  economic,  so- 
cial, religious,  and  cultural.  Political  history,  of  Historical 
course,  covers  wars  and  the  affairs  of  kings  and  categories 
of  other  forms  of  government,  also  legal  development.  Eco- 
nomic history  traces  the  production,  distribution,  and  con- 
sumption of  wealth  in  the  past,  the  business  of  the  world, 
its  trade,  industry,  and  agriculture.  Social  history  deals 
with  family  life,  classes,  manners  and  customs,  dress,  diet, 
and  the  like.  Subjects  such  as  the  rise  of  the  Papacy,  or  the 
spread  of  Mohammedanism,  or  the  Protestant  Revolt,  be- 
long primarily  to  religious  history.  The  history  of  culture 
includes  the  progress  of  art,  literature,  learning,  and  educa- 
tion, and  traces  those  two  supreme  products  of  hand  and 
mind,  the  fine  arts  and  philosophy.  It  is  evident  that  these 
categories  are  not  mutually  exclusive.  Taxation,  for  in- 
stance, is  both  political  and  economic.  Slavery  is  both  a 
social  and  an  economic  institution.  Almost  any  event  would 
produce  effects  in  more  than  one  of  these  five  fields.  Human 
life  is  one  and  all  such  divisions  of  it  are  more  or  less  artifi- 
cial, but  they  are  also  rather  helpful.  History  is  sometimes 
grouped  with  political  science,  economics,  and  sociology, 
and  they  are  called  social  sciences  in  distinction  from  the 
natural  and  mathematical  sciences  and  from  linguistic 
studies.  But  history  may  equally  well  be  associated  with 
literature,  philosophy,  and  art.  They  cannot  get  along 
without  history,  nor  can  it  amount  to  much  if  it  takes  no 


6  THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

cognizance  of  them.  It  is  one  of  the  "humanities"  as  well 
as  a  social  science. 

History  is  not  a  mere  record  of  events,  but  tries  to  under- 
stand the  life  of  the  past.  The  pilgrim  seeking  the  way  to 
The  the  past  must  first  of  all,  like  Christian  at  the 

attitud? is  wicket  gate,  free  himself  from  the  burden  of  all 
sympathetic  his  present  prejudices  and  even  principles.  He 
must  forget  for  the  time  being  whether  he  is  a  socialist 
or  capitalist,  an  imperialist  or  a  democrat,  Protestant  or 
Roman  Catholic,  German-American  or  Scotch-Irish.  To 
see  the  scenes  of  the  past  he  must  borrow  the  eyes  of  the 
past.  What  men  did  then  will  mean  little  to  him  unless  he 
comprehends  their  motives,  their  ideas,  and  their  emotions, 
and  the  circumstances  under  which  they  acted.  One  of  the 
greatest  benefits  derivable  from  the  study  of  history  is  this 
entering  into  the  life  and  thought  of  other  people  in  other 
times  and  places.  Thereby  we  broaden  our  own  outlook 
upon  the  world  as  truly  as  if  we  had  traveled  to  foreign 
countries  or  learned  to  think  and  to  express  ourselves  in 
another  language  than  our  own.  History,  indeed,  alone 
makes  it  possible  for  us  to  travel  both  in  time  and  space. 

The  student  of  history  should,  however,  be  critical  as 
well  as  sympathetic.  Truth  is  always  his  aim,  a  thorough 
The  understanding  of  the  past  as  it  really  was.    He 

attitude^ is  must  not  bclicve  everything  that  the  men  of  the 
also  critical  p^gt  tell  him  about  themselves.  He  must  get  to 
know  them  well  enough  to  tell  when  they  are  trying  to  de- 
ceive him  or  themselves.  He  must  be  aware  of  their  failings 
and  prejudices  as  well  as  of  their  motives  and  obstacles.  He 
must  not  allow  himself  to  be  swept  off  his  feet  by  excessive 
enthusiasm  for  some  one  man  or  ideal  or  institution  of  the 
past;  he  must  always  retain  his  sanity  and  preserve  a  cool, 
impartial,  and  open-minded  attitude.  He  will  be  suspicious 
of  sensational  and  miraculous  stories  and  of  dramatic  de- 
nouements. He  will  make  allowance  for  the  universal  tend- 
ency of  human  nature  to  exaggeration  and  to  make  a  good 
story  whenever  there  is  the  slightest  opportunity. 

To  know  the  past  truly,  to  appreciate  the  men  of  long  ago 


THE  STUDY  OF   HISTORY  7 

fully,  to  grasp  their  spirit  and  point  of  view,  we  should  read 
their  own  words  in  their  own  language,  and  see  Primary 
their  own  handiwork.  In  other  words,  we  should  secondary 
go  to  the  original  sources,  whence  in  the  first  works 
instance  all  our  knowledge  of  the  past  comes.  But  it  is 
sometimes  necessary  to  travel  far  and  obtain  a  special  per- 
mit to  see  an  original  document  or  monument,  although 
modern  art  museums  and  the  great  printed  collections  of 
historical  sources  which  have  been  published  have  greatly 
lightened  the  labors  of  the  historian.  In  the  latter  he  finds 
the  manuscripts  of  olden  chroniclers  carefully  edited,  the 
handwriting  and  abbreviations  deciphered,  and  printed  in 
legible  type  with  helpful  footnotes.  Even  so  the  sources  may 
still  be  in  Latin  or  Arabic  or  some  other  language  unknown 
to  or  difficult  for  the  ordinary  student.  Furthermore,  there 
are  many  passages  in  the  original  documents  which  only  the 
trained  specialist  can  correctly  interpret.  Then  many  prim- 
ary sources  are  incomplete  in  character,  or  fragmentary,  or 
full  of  errors  which  other  sources  correct.  In  short,  from  one 
document  or  monument  we  seldom  obtain  a  full  view  of 
the  past  and  often  obtain  a  perverted  view.  Hence  the 
historian  who  combines  the  fragments  into  a  harmonious 
whole  renders  us  a  great  service.  The  writings  of  modern 
historians  concerning  the  past,  produced  after  a  study  of  the 
original  sources,  are  called  secondary  works.  But  even  the 
student  beginning  the  study  of  history  should  not  confine 
his  attention  to  secondary  works.  A  number  of  medieval 
original  sources  have  been  translated  into  English  in  whole 
or  in  selections  and  are  as  available  as  the  secondary  works. 
Into  these,  at  least,  every  student  of  history  should  dip, 
and  supplement  the  picture  of  the  past  which  the  historians 
draw  for  him  by  his  own  vivid  glimpses  into  the  minds  of 
the  men  of  the  past  themselves. 

The  ordinary  reader  of  history  at  the  present  time  needs 
to  be  almost  as  critical  as  the  specialist  who  in-    Dangers  of 
vestigates  the  very  sources  of  historical  knowledge    hSorfcal^"^ 
for  new  facts,  for  there  is   a  deal  of  historical    reading 
misinformation  current  in  the  talk  and  writing  of  to-day,  in 


8  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

editorials  and  sermons  and  magazine  articles  and  even  in 
pretentious  volumes.  The  fact  is  that  of  late  great  progress 
has  been  made  in  historical  investigation,  and  that  not  only 
have  many  details  been  corrected,  but  many  old  classifica- 
tions and  generalizations  have  gone  by  the  board.  The  re- 
sult is,  especially  in  America,  where  higher  education  and 
advanced  investigation  have  only  recently  attained  great 
development  and  where  history  used  to  be  taught  very 
poorly  in  the  schools,  that  any  one  who  learned  his  history 
twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  and  has  not  kept  up  with  the 
progress  of  the  subject  since  is  liable  to  have  many  false 
notions  concerning  both  the  past  and  the  science  of  history 
itself.  Consequently  men  learned  in  other  fields  —  lawyers, 
natural  scientists,  teachers  pi  literature  and  philosophy  — 
often  relate  their  studies  of  the  past  to  a  scheme  of  history 
which  has  been  or  is  being  rapidly  discarded.  One  must  be 
careful,  then,  where  one  gets  one's  historical  information  and 
especially  any  sweeping  generalizations.  It  is  also  unfor- 
tunate that  readable  histories  are  apt  to  be  the  least  reliable 
because  they  are  generally  written  to  sell  by  professional 
authors  who  know  how  to  write  entertainingly,  but  lack 
historical  training  and  ideals.  But  after  all  history  is  not 
merely  a  branch  of  literature  to  be  read  with  interest ;  it  is 
a  social  science  to  be  studied  with  care.  One  may  consult 
critical  bibliographies  where  the  best  books  are  listed  with 
some  statement  of  their  scope  and  worth,  and  one  may 
refer  to  the  reviews  of  books  in  the  historical  journals.  But 
the  best  thing  to  do  is  to  cultivate  a  critical  sense  of  one's 
own,  to  keep  asking  one's  self  how  the  author  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  which  one  is  reading,  to  keep  observing 
whether  his  tone  seems  fair  and  sane  and  his  statement  of 
details  plausible  and  likely. 

We  have  said  that  readable  histories  are  often  unreliable, 
but  that  does  not  prove  that  reliable  histories  are  of  neces- 
History  ^^^Y  ^O^'   History  may  be  hard,  but  it  ought  to 

need  not  be     be  Interesting.    Unless  life  itself  is  dull,  unless 

dry  reading        ,       ,  i         •  r     i 

the  heroes  and  writers  of  the  past  were  tiresome 
personalities,   unless  the  most  painstaking  and   inspired 


THE  STUDY  OF  HISTORY  9 

works  of  the  leading  artists  are  of  no  interest,  history 
should  not  be  tedious.  Polybius,  the  most  modern  in  spirit 
of  the  ancient  Greek  historians,  spoke  scornfully  of  the  mere 
bookworm  historian  who  lacked  human  experience  and 
spent  all  his  hours  "reclining  on  his  couch,"  studying  docu- 
ments from  a  neighboring  library  and  "comparing  the  mis- 
takes of  former  historians  without  any  fatigue  to  himself." 
To  him  the  dignity  of  history  seemed  to  require  both  lit- 
erary genius  and 

**  The  man  of  many  shifts,  who  wandered  far  and  wide, 
And  towns  of  many  saw,  and  learned  their  mind ; 
And  suffered  much  in  heart  by  land  and  sea, 
Passing  through  wars  of  men  and  grievous  waves," 

History  is,  after  all,  and  always  will  be,  despite  dry-as-dust 
research  and  writing,  the  most  human  of  sciences. 

Since  history  treats  of  all  sorts  of  men  in  different  times 
and  varied  places,  three  fundamental  questions  confront  us 
at  the  start:  how  to  classify  mankind,  how  to  Theques- 
distinguish  different  localities,  and  how  to  meas-  ^^'^^  °^  ^^^^ 
ure  time.  To  these  introductory  queries  anthropology, 
geography,  and  chronology  give  answers.  It  is  now  recog- 
nized, however,  that  it  is  no  simple  operation  to  divide  men 
into  distinct  races.  Various  methods  have  been  tried  and 
classifications  have  been  made  according  to  the  color  of  the 
skin,  or  the  shade  and  curl  of  the  hair,  or  the  measurements 
of  the  skull,  —  a  handy  method  in  the  case  of  men  of  the 
past,  —  or  the  language  spoken.  But  these  classifications 
run  counter  to  one  another.  Entire  peoples  adopt  a  foreign 
language  for  their  own,  so  that  tribes  who  are  physically 
alike  are  found  to  speak  totally  different  languages,  while 
utterly  different  physical  types  are  found  to  have  a  common 
speech.  Moreover,  men  have  lived  for  so  long  upon  the 
earth  and  have  wandered  so  widely  that  probably  all  peoples 
found  to-day  represent  racial  mixtures.  Also  it  has  recently 
been  asserted  that  the  shape  of  the  skull  and  other  physical 
traits  alter  when  the  individual  or  tribe  moves  to  a  new  and 
different  environment  and  climate.  The  past,  however,  has 
probably  seldom  seen  such  rapid  immigration  and  mixing 


lo         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

and  absorption  of  miscellaneous  races  and  nationalities  as 
we  see  in  this  country. 

Because  the  Celtic,  Teutonic,  Slavic,  Greek,  Latin,  Sans- 
krit, and  Persian  tongues  seem  to  belong  to  a  single  linguistic 
The  Aryans  System,  it  used  to  be  assumed  that  those  peoples 
not  alike  in  formed  the  white  or  Aryan  or  Caucasian  race, 
only  in  and   that  they  had   once   lived   together   in   a 

speech  common  home  whence  they  had  spread  through 

Europe  and  western  Asia.  But  it  is  now  realized  that  there 
are  marked  racial  differences  between  peoples  speaking 
"Aryan"  or  Indo-European  languages,  and  that  some 
Aryan-speaking  peoples  are  akin  in  physical  type  to  other 
peoples  who  do  not  speak  an  Aryan  language  at  all.  Lan- 
guage, in  short,  seems  the  only  common  bond  between  the 
"Aryans." 

The  division  of  the  peoples  of  Europe  into  races  which 
is  current  at  present  is  as  follows:  Three  main  European 
The  races  physical  types  are  recognized  and  are  named 
of  Europe  after  their  original  habitat  or  the  place  where  the 
type  is  at  present  to  be  found  in  its  purest  state.  These  are 
the  Northern  race,  the  Mediterranean  race,  and  the  Alpine 
race.  All  are  white  men,  but  the  Northerners  are  fair  and 
tall  with  long  heads  or  skulls  —  a  type  found  at  its  purest 
in  the  Scandinavian  countries  and  on  the  north  shore  of 
Germany  and  the  east  coast  of  Great  Britain  facing  those 
countries.  The  Mediterranean  type  is  best  seen  in  Spain 
and  southern  Italy,  and  is  short  and  dark,  but  long-headed 
like  the  Northerners.  To  this  Mediterranean  race,  too,  be- 
long the  Berbers  of  North  Africa.  The  Alpine  race  comes 
midway  between  the  other  two  in  respect  to  stature  and  color, 
but  is  broad-skulled,  unlike  either  of  them.  The  Celts  and 
the  Slavs  are  largely  of  this  type,  though  its  especial  home  is 
in  the  highlands  of  Europe  that  stretch  east  and  west  be- 
tween the  Mediterranean  world  and  the  north.  In  many 
countries  one  naturally  sees  fusions  of  these  races,  but  there 
are  to-day  or  were  in  the  Middle  Ages  several  peoples  whose 
race,  language,  and  customs  defy  attempts  at  classification, 
such  as  the  Basques  of  the  extreme  southwest  of  France  and 


THE  STUDY  OF   HISTORY  ii 

north  of  Spain  and  the  Picts  of  early  Scotland.  Among  the 
peoples  of  Europe  we  further  find  an  Asiatic  racial  factor 
and  see  the  effect  of  immigration  and  invasion  from  the 
Orient.  Different  authorities  divide  the  Asiatic  races  some- 
what diversely,  and  vary  especially  in  their  nomenclature. 
The  main  point  to  note  here  is  that  a  number  of  European 
peoples,  such  as  the  Lapps,  Finns,  Turks,  Magyars  of  Hun- 
gary, and  the  Bulgarians,  represent  a  considerable  infusion 
of  blood  from  the  western  Asiatic  racial  groups. 

The  scene  of  medieval  history  is  laid  in  Europe  and  in 
those  regions  of  Asia  and  Africa  adjoining  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea.  To  follow  the  history  intelligently  it  is  Geography 
essential  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  geogra-  °^  Europe 
phy  of  this  area.  The  reader  should  have  in  mind  the  main 
physical  features  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  the  great 
mountain  ranges,  the  chief  rivers  and  other  bodies  of  water, 
and  also  the  modern  political  map  of  Europe  with  its 
national  boundaries  and  chief  cities.  The  continent  of 
Europe  has  a  coast  so  deeply  indented  by  arms  of  the  sea 
that  many  parts  are  distinctly  and  definitely  marked  off 
from  the  main  trunk.  The  British  Isles  form  such  a  group. 
The  Scandinavian  peninsula  is  another  clearly  marked 
unit,  although,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Baltic  Sea  forms  a 
common  center  and  meeting-place  for  all  the  lands  border- 
ing upon  it.  To  the  south  Greece,  Italy,  and  Spain  are 
peninsulas  separated  by  mountain  ranges  from  the  rest  of 
Europe,  although  here  again  the  Mediterranean  forms  a 
channel  of  communication  between  them.  The  plain  of 
Hungary  is  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  the  Carpathians, 
and  four  mountain  chains  enclose  the  upper  basin  of  the 
Elbe  River  in  a  sort  of  parallelogram  called  Bohemia.  The 
Alps  are  very  abrupt  on  the  Italian  side,  but  slope  gradually 
northward  toward  Germany,  which  divides  into  southern 
highlands  and  the  North  German  plain.  The  latter  is  sub- 
divided by  the  Rhine,  Elbe,  and  Oder  Rivers.  It  merges 
indistinguishably  into  the  Low  Countries  and  northern 
France,  and  to  the  east  into  the  vaster  area  of  Russia,  and 
thus  is  the  chief  feature  of  the  main  trunk  of  Europe. 


12  THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Russia  is  intersected  by  a  network  of  rivers,  some  flowing 
north  to  the  White  and  the  Baltic,  others  south  to  the 
Black  and  the  Caspian  Seas.  In  ancient  times  Russia  was 
largely  covered  with  swamps  and  forests,  but  there  were 
fertile  grass  steppes  then  as  now  in  the  south.  Between 
eastern  Europe  and  western  Asia  there  is  no  abrupt  transi- 
tion in  climate,  flora  and  fauna,  or  topography.  The  plains 
and  mountains  of  the  one  fade  into  those  of  the  other,  but 
the  boundary  is  roughly  marked  by  the  Ural  Mountains. 

In  France  west  and  northwest  of  the  Alps  come  other 
lesser  mountain  ranges,  the  Cevennes,  Jura,  and  Vosges; 
and  west  of  these  the  basins  of  the  Garonne,  Loire,  and 
Seine  Rivers,  flowing  through  plains  to  the  sea.  From  the 
Alps  four  important  rivers,  the  Po,  Danube,  Rhine,  and 
Rhone,  flow  in  opposite  directions  into  as  many  different 
seas,  the  Adriatic,  Black,  North,  and  Mediterranean.  As 
from  the  Alps  the  land  slopes  off  to  the  Baltic  and  North 
Seas  and  the  English  Channel,  so  on  the  farther  side  of 
those  bodies  of  water  —  which  once,  by  the  way,  were  for 
the  most  part  dry  land  —  rise,  after  an  interval  of  lowlands, 
the  mountains  of  Norway,  of  the  Shetlands  and  Iceland,  of 
Scotland  and  northwestern  England  and  Wales.  They  face 
the  Continent  as  the  opposite  tier  of  seats  rises  up  in  a 
stadium. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  overestimate  the  effect  of  physical 
environment  upon  man's  life,  especially  in  earlier  ages  when 
Influence  of  tunnels  and  canals,  steam  and  electricity,  had 
geography  not  yet  ovcrcomc  and  harnessed  nature.  Once 
'^  '^^^  natural  boundaries  and  obstacles  could  not  be 
so  easily  disregarded ;  and  trade  routes,  race  migrations,  and 
military  campaigns  alike  had  to  follow  certain  lines.  Also 
man's  food  and  costume  and  dwelling  and  industries  and 
artistic  creations  were  dictated  to  him  largely  by  the  ma- 
terials available  in  his  immediate  neighborhood.  Fear  and 
appreciation  of  the  forces  in  nature  long  Influenced  reli- 
gion. Even  to-day,  if  we  travel,  we  find  different  races  and 
languages  and  customs  and  governments  and  religions  in 
different  lands,  as  well  as  mines  In  one  region,  olive  groves 


THE  STUDY  OF  HISTORY  13 

in  another,  and  sheep  grazing  in  a  third.  These  differences 
are  in  part  due  to  geography.  And  we  still  are  unable  to 
escape  the  effects  of  changes  in  the  barometer  upon  our 
spirits.  Indeed,  recent  experimental  tests  tend  to  confirm 
the  general  notion  that  physical  and  mental  efficiency  are 
greatest  in  a  climate  where  the  temperature  is  moderate  and 
variable,  and  that  a  tropical  climate  weakens  moral  char- 
acter as  well  as  decreases  the  capacity  for  intellectual  and 
manual  labor. 

The  question  "When?"  is  no  less  important  to  the  stu- 
dent of  history  than  "Where?"  To  trace  the  progress  of 
civilization  and  to  understand  historical  relation-  importance 
ships,  it  is  necessary  to  know  when  things  hap-    o{  dates  in 

'  .         ,     „  .  ^         '         history 

pened  or  existed,  bvery  important  event  has  its 
causes  and  results,  and  to  learn  them  we  must  know  what 
preceded  and  followed  the  event.  Human  society  in  any 
place  at  any  time  consists  of  many  particular  things  and 
persons,  events  and  customs.  These  go  together  and  what 
unites  them  is  their  simultaneous  occurrence.  They  are  a 
bundle  of  sticks  which  must  be  tied  together  with  a  date. 
Moreover,  the  effect  of  an  event  upon  society  depends 
greatly  upon  when  it  happened,  for  circumstances  might  be 
favorable 'at  one  time  and  not  at  another.  It  is  true  that 
many  social  conditions  which  have  existed  for  a  long  period 
began  and  disappeared  so  gradually  that  it  is  impossible 
to  date  them  precisely  and  one  must  be  content  with  such 
approximate  expressions  as  "the  thirteenth  century,"  "the 
early  Roman  Empire,"  and  "the  later  Middle  Ages." 
Other  events  which  undoubtedly  did  happen  within  some 
particular  year  we  are  also  unable  to  date  because  of  lack 
of  reliable  source  material.  But  the  object  of  the  historical 
student  should  be  not  so  much  to  fix  exact  dates  in  his 
memory  as  to  be  able  to  list  events  in  their  proper  sequence, 
to  associate  closely  together  all  simultaneous  happenings, 
and  to  cultivate  a  feeling  for  the  lapse  of  time  —  to  be  able 
to  realize,  for  instance,  what  five  hundred  years  ago  means. 
Of  course  among  the  lowest  savages  chronology  is  a  mat- 
ter of  slight  utility,  since  their  life  develops  little  and  there 


14         THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

is  nothing  to  record  different  from  the  past.  But  among 
civilized  peoples  who  are  either  progressing  or  declining, 
one  has  to  turn  back  but  a  generation  or  two  to  find 
great  changes.  The  life  of  some  one  old  man  still  living  to- 
day goes  back  to  the  days  before  our  Civil  War.  His  grand- 
father could,  perhaps,  tell  him  stories  of  the  period  before 
railroads  and  factories  had  come  into  existence.  Three  more 
such  lives  would  take  us  back  to  the  first  permanent  settle- 
ments made  by  white  men  in  this  country,  and  but  two  more 
would  land  us  on  the  verge  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Different  peoples  have  had  different  calendars  and  sys- 
tems of  chronology.  For  instance,  in  the  Middle  Ages  the 
^,        ,  Mohammedan  lunar  year  was  over  eleven  days 

Chronology  i        /^,     •     •  ,  , 

shorter  than  the  Christian  solar  year,  so  that 
thirty-three  and  a  half  years  elapsed  in  Arabia  and  North 
Africa  and  southern  Spain  while  thirty-two  and  a  half  were 
passing  in  France  and  Germany.  Even  the  Christians  in  the 
Middle  Ages  had  leap-years  a  little  oftener  than  we  do,  so 
that  their  reckoning  was  ten  days  ahead  of  time  by  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Another  difficulty  in  deal- 
ing with  medieval  dates  is  the  varying  usage  as  to  when  the 
year  shall  begin.  Certain  medieval  annals  say  that  Charle- 
magne was  crowned  emperor  in  80 1  instead  of  800  because 
they  reckon  Christmas  Day  as  the  first  of  the  new  year. 
On  the  other  hand,  his  death  is  put  in  813  instead  of  814  by 
those  who  do  not  begin  the  new  year  until  Easter.  This 
book  will  follow  the  customary  Christian  chronology  intro- 
duced by  the  monk,  Dionysius  Exiguus,  in  the  sixth  century, 
by  which  events  are  dated  so  many  years  before  or  after  the 
year  set  for  the  birth  of  Christ.  But  various  other  eras  were 
in  use  here  and  there  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Mohamme- 
dans began  their  era  with  the  Hegira  of  Mohammed 
(622  A.D.) ;  the  Greeks  and  Russians  employed  the  era  of 
Constantinople  which  assumes  to  date  its  years  from  the 
creation  of  the  world;  and  in  Aragon  and  Castile  until  the 
fourteenth  century  Christians  used  the  era  of  Spain  or  of 
the  Caesars  which  made  the  initial  year  what  we  call  39  B.C. 
The  present  volume  will  trace  the  history  of  Europe  and 


THE  STUDY  OF   HISTORY  15 

of  the  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa  adjacent  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  thus  closely  connected  with  Europe.  It  The  Middle 
will  trace  the  history  of  those  lands  from  the  ^^^^ 
decline  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  of  classical  civilization, 
from  the  entrance  of  new  peoples  upon  the  stage  of  Euro- 
pean history,  and  from  the  beginnings  of  Christianity.  It 
will  carry  that  story  to  the  discovery  of  the  new  continents 
of  North  and  South  America  and  of  an  all-sea  route  around 
South  Africa  to  the  Far  East,  to  the  eve  of  the  revolt  of  the 
Protestants  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  to  the  opening 
of  the  momentous  and  disastrous  reign  of  Charles  V  of  the 
House  of  Hapsburg  in  Germany,  Austria,  the  Netherlands, 
Spain,  and  large  portions  of  Italy.  This  period  of  more  than 
a  thousand  years  is  usually  called  the  Middle  Ages  on  the 
supposition  that  it  lies  between  ancient  and  modern  times. 
Such  a  division  of  the  history  of  the  world  gives  many  thou- 
sands of  years  to  ancient  history  and  a  disproportionately 
brief  duration  to  the  other  two  periods.  It  is  not  our  purpose 
here,  however,  to  quarrel  with  this  familiar  convention, 
which  was  adopted  at  a  time  when  ancient  history  had  not 
yet  been  traced  so  far  back  in  time.  We  may  simply  note 
that  there  is  almost  never  a  sharp  break  nor  a  total  dis- 
similarity between  periods  which  adjoin  in  time.  Thus  the 
Middle  Ages  inherited  much  from  ancient  times,  and  many 
features  of  our  present  civilization  may  be  traced  back 
several  centuries  into  medieval  history.  This  illustrates  how 
one  age  dovetails  into  its  successor,  no  sharp  line  being 
drawn  between  them,  but  some  features  of  the  old  life  con- 
tinuing for  some  time  after  innovations  have  been  made  in 
other  respects. 

In  medieval  history  we  have  the  decline  and  then  the 
recovery  of  civilization  to  note ;  we  have  various  lands  and 
peoples  in  different  stages  of  civilization  to  study.  Method  of 
and  we  shall  have  to  distinguish  progress  in  va-  ^^^^  volume 
rious  departments  of  human  activity.  Consequently  the 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages  will  be  here  set  forth  partly  in 
order  of  time,  partly  by  regions,  and  partly  in  topical  ar- 
rangement; and  the  reader  must  bravely  endeavor  to  keep 


i6  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

abreast  of  all  three.  It  may  somewhat  assist  him  to  have 
some  of  the  main  topics,  periods,  and  regions  associated 
with  the  greatest  men  of  the  age,  and  this  has  been  done 
where  the  men  seemed  great  enough  to  justify  it.  But  many 
of  the  greatest  accomplishments  of  the  Middle  Ages  were 
either  anonymous  or  the  work  of  countless  laborers. 

The  Middle  Ages  deserve  our  attention,  partly  because 
they  contributed  much  to  our  modern  civilization  and  be- 
Value  of         cause  our  study  of  them  helps  to  explain  many 
medieval        existing  conditions.    Then  grew  up  our  modern 
^^^°^^  languages,  then  began  modern  literatures  and 

universities,  then  developed  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
and  the  states  of  France  and  England,  then  were  discovered 
the  mariner's  compass,  gunpowder,  and  printing.  But  the 
Middle  Ages  also  merit  our  study  because  they  had  institu- 
tions and  ideas  which  are  gone  and  which  are  strange  to  us, 
but  the  study  of  which  serves  to  widen  our  experience, 
broaden  our  outlook,  and  deepen  our  sympathies  and  under- 
standing. It  is  a  good  thing  for  one  who  has  been  brought 
up  on  the  Western  prairie  to  study  not  merely  the  west- 
ward movement  of  the  American  people  or  the  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  but  also  to  read  of  the  crusades  and  the 
monasteries,  of  Byzantine  and  Gothic  art,  and  other  matters 
foreign  to  his  own  experience  and  stretching  beyond  his 
personal  horizon.  Those  medieval  men,  moreover,  were  our 
ancestors,  and  the  history  of  Americans  before  1492,  or  when- 
ever it  was  that  each  of  our  families  first  migrated  hither,  is 
the  history  of  Europe. 


THE  STUDY   OF   HISTORY  17 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

The  Character  and  Value  of  History. 

Questions  to  be  answered  orally  or  in  writing  as  a  result  of  personal 
reflection:  — 

1.  How  does  history  dififer  from  other  subjects  which  you  have 
studied? 

2.  Of  what  use  to  you  personally  has  the  history  been  which  you 
have  studied  or  read? 

3.  In  what  occupations  is  a  knowledge  of  history  most  essential, 
and  why? 

4.  How  would  you  compare  the  historical  point  of  view  with  the 
scientific  or  literary  or  philosophical  or  religious  standpoints 
and  methods? 

Historical  Categories. 
When  you  come  to  read  chapter  11,  ill,  or  iv,  classify  the  contents  of 
each   paragraph  according  as  they  seem   predominantly  political, 
economic,  social,  religious,  cultural,  or  geographical  in  character. 

Map-Work. 
On  an  outline  map  of  Europe  locate  the  following:  — 

1.  Mountains:  Alps,  Apennines,  Balkans,  Pyrenees,  Carpathians, 
Ural,  Vosges,  C6vennes,  Jura. 

2.  Seas:  Black,  Caspian,  JEgean,  Adriatic,  Baltic,  North,  White. 

3.  Rivers:  Volga,  Dnieper,  Don,  Vistula,  Oder,  Elbe,  Danube,  Po, 
Rhine,  Rhone,  Seine,  Loire,  Garonne,  Guadalquivir. 

Political  Geography  of  Modern  Europe. 

1.  Name  in  order  of  populousness  the  six  chief  nations  of  Europe 
and  state  the  form  of  government  existing  in  each. 

2.  Name  and  locate  what  you  consider  the  fifteen  most  important 
European  cities  to-day. 

3.  To  what  extent  do  the  political  boundaries  of  the  present  states 
of  Europe  coincide  with  natural  boundaries? 

Historical  Bibliography. 

A.  Find  two  books  consisting  of  selections  translated  from  the 
original  sources  of  medieval  history;  two  secondary  works  on 
the  early  Middle  Ages;  two  on  the  Middle  Ages  in  general;  two 
historical  atlases  usable  in  medieval  history;  and  one  book  on 
each  of  the  following  subjects:  the  Roman  Empire  before  476 
a.d,,  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire,  France  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  Germany  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Italy  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
Give  the  following  information  concerning  each  book:  author's 
last  name  followed  by  his  initials;  full  title;  place  and  date  of 
publication  and  edition  if  other  than  the  first;  number  of  vol- 
umes or  of  pages  if  there  is  but  one  volume;  whether  the  book 
has  illustrations,  maps,  and  index. 


18  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

B.  Select  some  one  of  the  above  books  for  closer  examination. 
From  its  table  of  contents  or  by  skimming  its  chapter  and  page 
headings  determine  what  period  it  covers,  to  what  lands  it 
applies,  and  whether  it  is  pretty  exclusively  devoted  to  political 
history  or  treats  of  other  matters.  Open  the  book  somewhere 
else  than  at  the  very  beginning  or  end,  read  a  few  consecutive 
pages,  and  form  an  opinion  as  to  its  readability  and  reliability. 

C.  Distinguish  between  the  following  books  in  respect  to  length 
and  authorship:  — 

Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  I. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source-Book  of  Medieval  History. 

Dow  and  Seignobos,  Feudal  Regime. 

D.  Compare  the  following  two  works  in  subject,  period  covered, 
length,  and  method  of  treatment:  — 

Bryce,  The  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Readings  on  History  and  its  Study. 

Polybius,  Shuckburgh's  English  translation,  book  ii,  p.  56;  book  ill, 
p.  31  ;  book  xii,  p.  27;  book  xv,  p.  36.  The  views  of  a  writer  over 
two  thousand  years  ago. 

Lord  Bolingbroke,  Letters  on  the  Study  and  Use  of  History  (in  any  edition 
of  his  works).  The  views  of  an  English  statesman,  writer,  and  phil- 
osopher two  hundred  years  ago. 

Carlyle,  Essay  on  History. 

J.  T.  Shotwell,  History,  in  the  eleventh  edition  of  the  Encyclopccdia 
Britannica. 

J.  H.  Robinson,  History,  in  The  New  History  (New  York,  1912). 

G.  T.  Warner,  Landmarks  in  English  hidustrial  History,  pp.  1-8. 

Freeman,  History  of  Sicily,  vol.  I,  Preface,  pp.  viii-xii. 

Sabatier,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  (1894),  pp.  xi,  xxi,  xxxiii. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  chap.  I. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

The  Roman  Empire  included  all  the  lands  bordering  upon 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  which  was  for  long  the  great  thor- 
oughfare of  civilization.  Speaking  in  a  general  ^j^  ^  .._ 
way  and  allowing  for  local  differences  and  irreg-  terranean 
ularities,  the  climate  of  this  basin  and  the  vege- 
tation of  its  coasts  are  uniform.  That  is  to  say,  the  coastal 
region  north  of  the  Sahara  Desert  belongs  with  the  southern 
coasts  and  peninsulas  of  Europe  rather  than  with  the  bulk 
of  the  African  continent;  and  the  French  Mediterranean 
littoral  is  more  like  the  coasts  of  Spain  and  Italy  than  it  is 
like  the  rest  of  France.  It  is,  indeed,  easy  to  cross  from 
Africa  to  Spain,  or  to  Italy  by  way  of  Sicily,  while  the 
islands  of  Cyprus  and  Crete  form  stepping-stones  from 
Egypt  to  Greece  and  from  Syria  to  the  ^gean  Sea  and  west 
coast  of  Asia  Minor.  Owing  to  the  narrowness  of  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar  and  to  their  shallowness  as  well,  —  since  a 
sunken  ridge  stretches  under  water  from  Spain  to  Africa,  — 
neither  tide  nor  cold  ocean  currents  exert  much  influence  in 
the  Mediterranean.  The  air  is  sunny  and  the  water  warm, 
but  it  is  very  salt  because  of  rapid  evaporation.  The  tide- 
less  sea  leaves  the  mouths  of  rivers  obstructed  by  silt  and 
unfit  to  serve  as  ports;  and  the  coast-line  changes  with  pass- 
ing years.  In  ancient  times  it  was  difficult  to  put  out  to  sea 
from  a  harbor  without  a  favoring  wind ;  on  the  other  hand, 
small  vessels  could  be  drawn  up  on  almost  any  sandy  beach 
and  left  there  without  fear  of  their  being  carried  off  by  the 
tide.  Caesar  lost  most  of  his  fleet  in  one  of  his  expeditions  to 
Britain  when  he  imprudently  left  his  ships  drawn  up  in  this 
way  on  an  exposed  shore.  Even  the  Mediterranean,  how- 
ever, could  be  stormy  enough  in  winter,  so  that  the  ancients 
did  little  navigation  at  that  time  of  year.  Fishing  is  not 
a  very  important  industry  in  the  Mediterranean,  but  in 


20         THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

ancient  times  the  dyes  obtained  from  the  purple  fisheries 
were  highly  prized. 

The  Roman  Empire  may  be  divided  into  three  sections 
differing  in  their  previous  history  and  civilization;  namely, 
Q  .  J  the  Oriental,  the  Greek  or  Hellenic,  and  the 
section  of      Roman- Barbarian.    The  Oriental  section  had  a 

e  mpire  j^jg^Qj-y  going  back  at  least  four  or  five  thousand 
years  in  the  river-valley  civilizations  and  despotisms  of  the 
Nile  and  the  Tigris-Euphrates.  Here  are  still  found  to-day 
magnificent  monuments  and  ruins  of  stately  edifices,  an 
abundance  of  written  records,  and  evidences  of  a  carefully 
organized  government  and  society,  of  artisans  and  mathe- 
maticians, of  people  with  high  standards  of  morality  and  a 
belief  in  a  future  life  and  last  judgment,  and  provided  with 
a  calendar  dividing  the  year  into  twelve  months  and  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  of  a  city  forty  miles  in  circum- 
ference and  trading  in  gems  from  India,  silks  from  China, 
ivory  and  ostrich  feathers  from  the  heart  of  Africa,  —  and 
all  this  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years  before  Rome  had 
ceased  to  be  a  village,  before  Julius  Caesar  had  added  an 
extra  day  each  leap-year,  before  Roman  jurisprudence  had 
developed,  and  before  Rome's  censors  and  imperators  had 
built  a  single  road  or  erected  one  triumphal  arch.  This  cul- 
ture is  also  found  at  an  early  date  in  the  islands  of  Cyprus 
and  Crete.  In  the  latter  place  works  of  art  have  recently 
been  excavated  worthy  of  the  Greek  genius,  but  made 
many  centuries  before  the  history  of  Greece  begins  and  at  a 
time  when  the  Orient  was  the  industrial  center  of  the  world. 
The  Phoenicians  spread  this  Oriental  civilization  to  various 
points  in  the  Mediterranean,  notably  to  Carthage  in  North 
Africa.  Most  of  Asia  Minor  is  also  to  be  counted  within  this 
Oriental  section  of  the  Empire. 

Greek  or  Hellenic  civilization  —  the  Greeks  called  them- 
selves "Hellenes"  and  occupied  more  territory  than  is  in- 
The  Greek  cluded  in  modern  Greece  —  reached  its  height 
section  jj^  ^^^  f^f^j^  ^^^  fourth  centuries  before  Christ. 

The  Hellenes  were  great  colonizers,  and  lived  on  the  west 
coast  of  Asia  Minor,  in  Sicily  and  southern  Italy,  and  in 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  21 

coast  settlements  scattered  about  the  Black  and  Mediter- 
ranean Seas,  as  well  as  in  Greece  proper  and  the  islands  of 
the  JEgean.  Their  culture  owed  much  to  the  Orient,  but 
they  were  freer  politically  and  intellectually,  since  no  lo'^ 
dynasties  of  rulers  nor  ancient  hierarchies  of  priests  dor^j- 
nated  their  life  and  thought.  They  were  "free-born  wan- 
derers of  the  mountain  air"  or  on  the  sea.  They  enjoyed  the 
advantage  of  a  better  system  of  writing  than  those  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians  and  Babylonians.  They  developed  art, 
especially  sculpture,  to  a  higher  point,  and  even  in  architec- 
ture their  simple  temples  are  better  proportioned,  and  their 
Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian  columns  and  capitals  more 
graceful.  In  their  Aryan  language,  which  invaders  from  the 
north  had  introduced  among  them,  they  expressed  them- 
selves more  clearly  and  beautifully  than  Oriental  languages 
and  thought  had  permitted.  It  is  to  them  that  we  look  for 
the  first  "classics "  in  many  varieties  of  literary  production ; 
for  instance,  the  epics  of  Homer,  the  lyrics  of  Sappho,  the 
history  of  Herodotus,  the  tragedies  of  ^schylus,  the  com- 
edies of  Menander,  the  orations  of  Demosthenes,  the  pas- 
torals of  Theocritus. 

The  thought  of  the  Hellenes  at  first  took  the  imaginative 
form  of  beautiful  mythology,  but  then  changed  to  rational 
speculation  concerning  the  nature  of  the  universe    „, ., 

....  ,.  ,,  .,  r  t  •        "nilosophy 

in  which  man  lives  and  the  right  conduct  of  his 
life  in  it.  Such  reasoning  has  ever  since  been  called  "phil- 
osophy," the  name  the  Greeks  themselves  gave  to  it,  and  is 
important  to  note,  not  only  as  a  prominent  feature  of  their 
civilization,  but  because  of  its  great  influence  upon  Chris- 
tian writers  both  during  the  Roman  Empire  and  throughout 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  Greek  historians  themselves  narrated 
little  but  wars  and  the  doings  of  generals  and  statesmen ;  but 
the  medieval  historian,  who  never  had  heard  of  Themisto- 
cles  or  Agesilaus  or  Philopoemen,  could  give  a  brief  outline 
of  the  views  of  all  the  Greek  philosophers  from  Thales  of 
Miletus,  who  foretold  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  and  held  that 
everything  is  made  out  of  water,  down  through  such  names 
as   Pythagoras,  who   asserted  the  importance  of  number 


22  THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  harmony  in  the  universe,  Democritus,  who  first  taught 
that  the  world  is  made  up  of  atoms,  Socrates,  and  Plato,  to 
the  late  schools  of  thinkers  called  Stoics,  Epicureans,  and 
Neo-Platonists,  of  whom  we  shall  have  to  speak  again 
lab;er. 

Of  all  Greek  philosophers  Aristotle  was  to  be  the  most 
influential  in  the  Middle  Ages.  He  had  profited  by  the 
teaching  of  Plato,  just  as  Plato  had  been  the 
disciple  of  Socrates;  but  his  own  teaching  was 
very  different  from  the  Platonic  philosophy.  Plato  was  a 
poetical  idealist;  Aristotle  was  more  systematic  and  scien- 
tific. His  History  of  Animals  collected  and  classified  a  large 
amount  of  zoological  data;  his  Poetics  discussed  various 
forms  of  literature  and  is  our  first  fundamental  work  of 
literary  criticism  and  theory;  his  Politics  summarized  the 
different  forms  of  government  existing  in  his  day.  More 
theoretical  were  his  writings  on  physics,  metaphysics,  and 
ethics,  but  here  too  he  dissented  from  Plato  in  many  im- 
portant respects.  Several  of  his  treatises  were  devoted  to 
psychological  subjects;  and  in  his  works  on  logic  he  laid 
down  sound  rules  which  have  been  observed  in  the  art  of 
reasoning  ever  since. 

Aristotle  was  for  a  time  the  tutor  of  a  young  conqueror 
who  was  to  change  the  map  and  civilization  of  the  east- 
Alexander  ern  Mediterranean  world.  Alexander  the  Great, 
the  Great  j^jj^g  q{  Macedon,  336-323  B.C.,  finishing  the 
work  which  his  father  Philip  had  prepared  and  begun,  con- 
quered the  world  from  the  Balkans  to  Egypt  and  from  the 
Greek  peninsula  to  the  frontier  of  India.  Into  this  Oriental 
world,  and  especially  into  that  portion  of  it  which  the 
Roman  Empire  later  included,  was  now  introduced  Hellenic 
culture,  which  fused  with  what  was  left  of  the  old  cultures 
of  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Assyria  into  a  civilization  termed 
"Hellenistic."  At  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  named  after  and 
founded  by  Alexander,  was  developed  the  largest  library  in 
the  ancient  world,  a  zoological  park  and  gardens  to  encour- 
age further  investigations  like  Aristotle's  History  of  Animals, 
and  a  learned  society  of  librarians,  editors,  literary  critics, 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  23 

men  of  letters,  geographers  and  astronomers,  botanists  and 
physiologists  and  medical  men.  Antioch  in  Syria  was  a 
similar  center.  Greek  art,  too,  now  left  the  peninsula,  and 
the  chief  centers  of  sculpture  were  at  cities  in  Asia  Minor. 

Alexander's  empire  was  divided  after  his  death  into  the 
three  great  monarchies  of  Macedon,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  and 
many  lesser  states  in  Asia  Minor  and  the  Greek  Greek  in- 
peninsula.  Therefore,  when  Rome  had  united  the  Roman 
under  her  rule  all  Italy,  including  the  declining  Empire 
Greek  colonies  of  southern  Italy  and  Sicily,  and  had  deci- 
sively defeated  her  great  opponent  in  Africa,  Carthage,  she 
found  it  comparatively  easy  to  bring  the  powers  of  the 
eastern  Mediterranean  one  by  one  under  her  sway.  But  as 
Greek  civilization  had  gone  on  spreading  through  Alexan- 
der's empire  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  political  unit,  so  now 
it  was  adopted  by  the  Romans,  who  indeed  had  borrowed 
much  from  it  in  Italy  before  they  conquered  the  East.  Dur- 
ing the  time  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  early  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era,  Greek  continued  to  be  the  written  and 
learned  language  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  Mediterranean 
Basin,  and  the  science  of  the  Hellenistic  period  was  contin- 
ued by  such  writers  as  Galen  and  Ptolemy,  our  chief  sources 
for  ancient  medicine  and  astronomy  respectively.  It  is 
worth  remarking  that  both  these  scientists  believed  in 
astrology. 

The  third  section  of  the  Roman  Empire  included  the 
Latin  civilization  of  Italy  and  the  barbarians  whom  Rome 
had  conquered  and  added  to  the  civilized  ancient   -,,    ^ 

'  ^  ^  The  Roman- 

world.   Geographically  it  embraced  all  that  part    Barbarian 

of  the  Empire  to  the  north  or  west  of  Macedon, 
Sicily,  and  Carthage.  Orientals  and  Greeks  had  done  some- 
thing for  these  regions,  but  in  the  main  their  civilization 
was  the  work  of  Rome.  It  will  be  noted  that  this  section 
included  not  only  the  coasts  of  the  western  Mediterranean, 
but  also  the  valley  of  the  Danube  River,  the  Alps,  the  valley 
of  the  Rhine,  and  the  entire  interior  of  the  Spanish  penin- 
sula and  of  what  is  now  France.  This  brought  Rome  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean;  she  did  not  halt  there,  but  added  the 


24  THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

province  of  Britain  beyond  the  English  Channel.  Italy  had 
once  been  the  western  frontier  of  the  ancient  civilized  world 
and  the  Latins  had  been  far  inferior  in  culture  to  the  Greeks. 
But  they  had  now  adopted  Greek  mythology  and  Greek 
philosophy ;  copies  of  the  masterpieces  of  Greek  sculpture 
were  to  be  seen  in  the  houses  of  the  rich  Roman  nobles;  and 
the  various  forms  of  Greek  literature  were  paralleled  and 
imitated  in  Latin.  Terence  corresponded  to  Menander; 
Seneca,  to  yEschylus;  Cicero,  to  Demosthenes;  and  Vergil, 
to  Homer.  Pliny  the  Elder  in  his  Natural  History  tried  to 
combine  all  the  science  of  antiquity  in  a  single  encyclopaedia. 
This  Latin  version  of  Greek  culture  the  Romans  spread 
among  the  barbarians  whom  they  subdued.  Thus  we  have 
already  begun  to  pass  from  the  history  of  the  Mediterranean 
Basin  to  the  history  of  western  and  northern  Europe. 

There  is  a  key  to  classical  civilization  and  to  the  daily 
life  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins  which  has  not  yet  been  men- 
The  tioned,  the  ancient  city-state.    Our  word  "poli- 

aty-state        tics"   comes   from  the  Greek   word  for  a  city^ 
—  poUs.    This  was  the  fundamental  political,  social,  and 
religious  unit  among  the  Hellenes,  the  Latins,  and  several 
other  ancient  peoples.   Such  a  state  consisted  normally  of  a  f 
walled  town  and  a  small  surrounding  area  under  its  govern-  ' 
ment.    Peasants  who  lived  outside  the  walls  might  perhaps  \ 
be  citizens,  but  they  would  have  to  go  to  town  to  vote  and  * 
to  obtain  justice.  One  reason  for  the  existence  of  such  states 
was  that  the  mountains  or  seas  shut  the  Greeks  off  from 
one  another  in  small  compartments,  or  on  islands,  or  on  a 
distant  shore  as  a  colony  amid  an  alien  population.   But 
geography  was  not  the  sole  reason  for  the  existence  of  the  , 
city-state.    Its  citizens  believed  that  they  were  all  related  j 
to  one  another  and  that  they  were  descended  from  a  com- 
mon divine  ancestor  whom  they  worshiped.    Their  fathers 
and  grandfathers  and  great-great-grandfathers  had   lived 
in  that  same  little  town  or  plain  or  island  as  far  back  as 
they  could  remember.    Consequently  the  citizens  were  well 
acquainted  with  one  another;  had  the  same  customs  and 
ways  of  doing  things ;  and  had  no  desire  to  admit  strangers 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  25 

to  share  their  life  and  citizenship.  Each  city-state  had  its 
own  religion,  its  own  legends  and  myths  and  gods  and 
heroes,  its  own  festivals  and  forms  of  worship,  in  which  all 
the  citizens  participated  and  which  were  presided  over  by 
the  town  magistrates.  If  one  went  to  another  city  one  found 
gods  with  different  names  and  functions,  and  strange  cere- 
monies on  the  wrong  days.  There  was,  therefore,  no  distinc- 
tion between  Church  and  State  in  Greece  and  Rome.  The 
city-state  was  both.  One's  duty  to  the  gods  and  one's  affec- 
tion for  one's  own  kindred  could  best  find  expression  in 
serving  the  State.  In  Sparta  the  city  took  boys  away  from 
the  home  at  seven  years  of  age,  and  henceforth  they  lived 
together  in  bands,  training  to  be  soldiers  and  statesmen. 
Each  city  naturally  was  a  distinct  economic  unit,  with  an 
agora  or  market-place  where  the  peasants  and  merchants 
sold  their  produce  and  wares.  There  was  trade  between 
different  cities,  but  one  also  felt  quite  free  to  plunder  the 
ship  of  any  one  but  a  fellow-citizen. 

Even  more  than  to-day  the  city  was  the  center  of  art, 
literature,  learning,  and  amusement,  since  there  were  no 
cheap  ways  of  spreading  these  things  to  farm  and  home  such 
as  we  possess  in  printing,  photography,  and  phonographs. 
Partly  for  the  same  reason  and  partly  because  the  climate 
encouraged  meeting  in  the  open  air,  the  inhabitants  —  more 
especially  the  men  —  of  the  ancient  city  spent  much  of  their 
time  together  out-of-doors,  not  merely  engaging  in  athlet- 
ics, but  listening  to  public  speakers,  poets,  and  philosophers, 
enjoying  a  dramatic  performance,  or  admiring  statues  and 
other  works  of  art,  which  were  exposed  to  the  air  rather  than 
enclosed  in  museums.  Also  the  exterior  rather  than  the 
interior  of  a  temple  was  adorned  with  frieze  and  colonnade, 
for  only  the  priests  and  individual  petitioners  entered  the 
small  cella  where  were  the  images  of  the  gods.  Festivals  and 
other  large  religious  gatherings,  such  as  athletic  games  and 
tragedies  or  comedies,  —  all  three  of  which  were  religious 
exercises,  —  were  held  in  the  stadium,  open-air  theater,  or 
some  other  large  open  place.  The  streets  of  the  town  were, 
however,  apt  to  be  narrow,  because  the  towns  were  limited 


26         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

in  size  by  their  enclosing  walls  and  because  there  was  little 
traffic  except  that  of  pedestrians. 

In  a  prosperous  city-state  there  were  usually  numerous 
slaves,  who  of  course  were  not  citizens,  but  whose  toil 
enabled  those  who  were  citizens  to  devote  more  of  their  time 
to  war,  politics,  and  culture.  Every  citizen  took  an  active 
personal  share  in  the  government  unless  he  lost  his  rights 
through  the  rise  to  power  of  a  tyrant  or  an  oligarchy,  or 
through  conquest  of  his  city  by  some  neighboring  town, 
which  would  either  leave  a  garrison  and  governor  of  its  own, 
or  establish  the  rule  of  a  few  persons  favorable  to  its  sway. 
The  ancients  seldom  practiced  representation  in  govern- 
ment; the  citizen  was  supposed  to  vote  and  fight  in  person, 
and  to  plead  his  own  case  in  court.  But  it  was  evidently 
impracticable  for  the  inhabitants  of  one  town  to  attend 
popular  assemblies  and  law  courts  and  religious  festivals  in 
another  town  many  miles  away.  Therefore,  either  each  city 
had  to  be  left  some  government  of  its  own,  or,  if  its  inhab- 
itants were  to  be  admitted  to  real  citizenship  in  another 
town,  they  must  be  transplanted  thither  and  their  old  walls 
and  city  destroyed.  Syracuse  often  did  just  this  to  the  other 
Greek  cities  of  Sicily. 

Rome  itself  was  a  city-state,  and,  although  more  liberal 
than  the  Greeks  in  bestowing  its  citizenship  on  others,  its 
Municioaii-  ^^^^  ^^  Italy  was  essentially  a  league  of  cities, 
ties  in  the  Moreover,  Alexander  the  Great  and  his  suc- 
"^^"^^  cessors  had  founded  scores  of  such  cities  through- 

out the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  world.  Rome, 
through  her  colonies  and  municipalities,  now  spread  the 
system  in  the  West.  Of  course  the  cities  now  lost  their 
precious  privilege  of  fighting  with  one  another,  and  the 
inhabitants  were  no  longer  so  closely  related.  But  many  of 
the  features  of  the  city-state  continued,  and  the  town  was 
"the  fundamental  local  unit  throughout  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  municipality  was  now  almost  always  organized  with  an 
aristocratic  government,  with  duumvirs,  who  corresponded 
to  the  Roman  consuls  and  decurions  or  curiales  (members  of 
the  curia),  who  resembled  the  Roman  senators.    But  these 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  27 

rich  men  gave  freely  of  their  wealth  and  showed  much 
civic  pride  in  adorning  their  native  city  with  hands®me 
buildings,  or  undertaking  the  expense  of  public  works  like 
aqueducts,  or  endowing  charitable  foundations,  or  pro- 
viding games  and  amusements.  They  gave  to  the  city 
where  modern  philanthropists  give  to  universities  and  for- 
eign missions. 

While  the  city-state  organization  thus  lasted  into  the 
Roman  Empire  and  continued  for  some  time  to  display  a 
healthy  life,  the  superimposition  of  the  Roman  Superimpo- 
imperial  system  and  law  upon  the  Mediterranean  fmperial 
world  and  western  Europe  was  a  change  of  the  government 
greatest  consequence.  It  is  true  that  the  Roman  emperors 
borrowed  many  of  their  methods  of  government  from  the 
monarchs  whom  they  conquered  and  whose  lands  they 
incorporated  into  the  Empire,  and  that  the  Roman  law, 
before  it  attained  to  its  final  perfection,  added  to  the  orig- 
inal ''civil  law"  (i.e.,  law  of  the  citizens,  or  of  the  city)  of 
the  Romans  themselves  the  best  of  the  laws  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean world.  But  the  Romans  knew  how  to  combine  into 
a  smoothly  working  system  these  odds  and  ends  which  they 
had  drawn  from  diverse  sources.  So  they  gave  to  the  peo- 
ples over  whom  they  ruled  the  advantage  of  one  united 
government  and  of  a  single,  harmonious  body  of  law.  This 
meant,  on  the  whole,  peace  and  justice  for  millions  of  human 
beings  for  hundreds  of  years.  To  reach  this  goal,  however, 
a  terrible  price  had  to  be  paid. 

Rome  had  won  the  supremacy  in  Italy  and  had  then 
annexed  most  of  the  Mediterranean  Basin  under  the  lead 
of  her  senate  of  three  hundred  members,  from  whose  fam- 
ilies most  of  the  annual  magistrates  and  generals  were 
elected  and  into  whose  ranks  these  officials  usually  went  at 
the  expiration  of  their  term  of  office.  The  Roman  people 
were  normally  docile  and  deferential,  trained  in  strict  obedi- 
ence to  their  fathers  and  superiors,  and  accustomed  to  the 
military  discipline  of  the  army  in  which  they  all  served. 
When  Rome  no  longer  had  to  struggle  for  existence  and  the 
world  lay  open  before  her  to  be  conquered  and  despoiled, 


28  THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  ruling  class,  who  had  hitherto  been  distinguished  for 
their  ability,  integrity,  and  devotion  to  the  State,  could 
not  resist  the  temptation,  but  now  devoted  themselves  to 
battening  upon  the  poor  Italians  and  other  conquered  peo- 
ples, and  became  corrupt  and  inefficient.  The  rank  and  file 
of  the  citizens  were  dissatisfied  with  their  small  share  of  the 
plunder,  but  could  see  no  better  way  to  increase  it  than  by 
forwarding  the  ambition  of  some  city  official  who  would  give 
them  amusing  shows  and  cheap  food,  or  by  serving  under 
some  military  leader  who  would  let  them  sack  cities  and 
gorge  themselves  with  loot,  and  then,  when  their  fighting 
days  were  over,  settle  them  somewhere  in  a  colony  where 
each  would  be  provided  with  a  farm  of  his  own.  This  delec- 
table devastation  could  not  go  on  forever,  however,  espe- 
cially since  the  ruling  class  became  so  inordinately  ambi- 
tious and  avaricious  that  they  were  not  content  to  divide 
things  decently  with  one  another.  The  result  was  civil  war, 
revolts  of  Italians,  revolts  of  provincials,  assassinations, 
massacres,  until  finally  the  exhausted  combatants  gladly 
welcomed  the  strong  rule  of  one  man  and  until  at  last  that 
one  man  came  to  see  that  it  was  bad  policy  to  kill  the 
geese  that  laid  the  golden  eggs. 

This  consummation  was  practically  completed  under 
Augustus  Caesar,  31  B.C.-14  A.D.,  whose  rule  marks  the 
transition  from  Republic  to  Empire.  He  pretended  to  share 
his  power  with  the  senate,  but  was  commander-in-chief 
{imperator)  of  the  entire  army,  appointed  the  governors  of 
half  the  provinces,  and  had  vast  private  estates  scattered 
all  over  the  Empire  and  bringing  him  in  a  princely  income. 
These  private  possessions  of  his  included  all  Egypt,  whose 
fertile  soil  alone  had  once  sufficed  to  support  the  pomp  of 
Pharaohs  and  of  Ptolemies  and  to  pay  the  cost  of  huge 
temples  and  pyramids.  In  the  city  of  Rome  he  was  protector 
of  the  common  people  and  was  constantly  being  elected  to 
this  or  that  office.  The  successors  of  Augustus  kept  increas- 
ing their  own  authority  and  lessening  that  of  the  senate 
until  after  about  a  hundred  years  the  imperator  had  become 
indeed  an  emperor. 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  29 

But  whenever  an  emperor  died,  there  was  liable  to  be  a 
struggle  for  the  throne  between  rival  candidates,  and  in 
settling  such  disputes  the  army  was  apt  to  prove  ^^^  ^^^ 
the  decisive  factor.  The  soldiers  expected  dona- 
tions, if  not  a  steady  increase  in  pay,  from  each  new  incum- 
bent. This  was  especially  true  of  the  praetorian  cohorts 
or  imperial  bodyguard  at  Rome;  but  the  legions  from  the 
distant  frontier  provinces  sometimes  took  a  hand  too  and 
supported  the  claims  of  their  ambitious  commanders.  Nor- 
mally, however,  the  legions  were  far  away  on  the  frontier 
or  in  camps  in  provinces  which  were  as  yet  not  thoroughly 
subdued.  But  those  provinces  which  had  ceased  to  rebel 
against  Roman  rule  and  which  had  adopted  its  civilization 
were  left  almost  entirely  free  from  the  presence  of  troops, 
unless  the  local  cities  kept  a  few  guards  of  their  own  as  police 
against  brigands  in  the  mountains  or  pirates  along  the  coast. 
Thus,  in  Gaul  troops  were  to  be  found  only  near  the  Rhine 
frontier,  and  even  in  Britain  the  legions  were  not  stationed 
in  the  southeast,  but  off  in  the  mountains  of  Wales  and 
northwestern  England  where  they  formed  a  ring  of  camps 
protecting  the  peaceful  province.  An  army  of  only  about 
four  hundred  thousand  soldiers  served  to  assure  peace  to 
the  entire  Empire.  They  served  for  twenty  or  twenty-five 
years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  term  they  received  the 
Roman  citizenship  if  they  did  not  possess  it  already,  and 
allotments  of  lands  on  which  to  pass  their  declining  years  in 
ease.  Usually  enough  volunteers  enlisted  every  year  to  keep 
the  ranks  filled.  The  best  emperor  was  one  who  traveled 
about  his  Empire  a  great  deal,  strengthening  the  frontiers 
or  making  wise  alliances  with  the  peoples  outside  the 
Empire,  hearing  the  complaints  of  his  subjects  against  their 
governors  and  tax  collectors,  and  noting  all  opportunities 
for  improving  the  government  and  civilization. 

We  have  seen  that  each  city-state  had  a  religion  of  its 
own  which  was  directed  by  the  town  government.    In  the 
Oriental  despotisms,  such  as  Egypt,  it  had  been    Worship  of 
customary  to  regard  the  ruler  as  divine.    It  was   ^^^  emperor 
therefore  natural   that   the  Empire  should  have  a  state 


30         THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

religion  of  its  own,  and  that  this  should  take  the  form  of 
worshiping  the  emperor,  who  seemed  to  symboHze  and  to 
embody  the  great  Roman  power.  This  was  the  one  form  of 
worship  that  bound  all  the  peoples  and  races  of  the  vast 
Empire  together,  whatever  might  be  their  own  local  gods 
and  religious  customs.  The  government  did  not  much  care 
what  other  rites  and  doctrines  the  people  might  practice 
and  believe,  so  long  as  they  showed  their  loyalty  by  joining 
in  the  imperial  cult,  and  did  not  engage  in  secret  assemblies 
where  rebellion  might  be  plotted  or  crime  perpetrated. 

The  Roman  law  has  survived  the  Roman  Empire,  and 

the  laws  of  many  European  countries  are  still  to-day  based 

in  large  measure  upon  its  definitions,  principles, 

Roman  law  °  r  t         i    ,  •    i  •  ,  V       , 

and  ways  of  legal  thmkmg,  or  have  even  retamed 
many  of  its  particular  provisions.  It  is  therefore  essential 
for  us  to  note  its  leading  characteristics. 

First,  it  was  adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  large  empire  and 
highly  civilized  society,  where  property  relations  and  busi-— 
ness  life,  if  not  quite  so  complex  in  organization  or  advanced 
in  economic  development  as  at  the  present  day,  were  yet 
probably  more  like  modern  conditions  than  in  any  previous 
age,  and  certainly  more  so  than  during  the  Middle  Ages. 

Second,  it  was  a  scientific  system  consistently  and  care- 
fully worked  out  in  its  every  detail  by  generation  after  gen- 
eration of  capable  jurists.  These  men,  by  their  skillful  inter- 
pretation of  the  old  written  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  pub- 
lished in  451-449  B.C.,  had  enabled  the  Romans  still  to  con- 
duct their  affairs  under  that  primitive  code  long  after  their 
life  had  greatly  altered  from  that  of  the  early  period  and 
their  ideas  of  justice  had  become  more  enlightened.  Then, 
through  the  edicts  of  successive  city  praetors  and  provincial 
governors,  a  new  body  of  law,  better  suited  to  the  require- 
ments of  a  great  city  and  of  the  Mediterranean  world,  had 
been  built  up.  Finally,  through  law  schools,  through  the 
decisions  of  imperial  jurists,  and  through  the  legal  literature, 
which  reached  its  height  about  200  a.d.  in  the  writings  of 
Ulpian  and  Papinian,  and  which  is  marked  by  acuteness  in 
reasoning,  clearness  in  statement,  and  fairness  in  judgment, 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  31 

the  Roman  law  became  both  technically  and  practically 
the  greatest  legal  system  that  the  world  had  known. 

Third,  equity  and  humanity  were  guiding  ideals  of  the 
Roman  law,  and  for  their  sake  it  gradually  rejected  old  cus- 
toms, forms,  and  precedents.  The  Roman  jurist  was  not 
contented  with  logical  reasoning  if  it  led  to  an  unfair  deci- 
sion. In  such  a  case  he  went  back  and  reexamined  his 
premises.  He  was  not  satisfied  to  apply  an  old  law  or  judi- 
cial decision  in  its  original  meaning  if  the  social  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  to  which  it  would  have  to  be  applied  had 
altered  since.  In  such  a  case  he  would  ask  himself,  what 
would  the  maker  of  this  law  or  the  judge  who  rendered  this 
decision  have  said  had  he  lived  under  present  conditions? 
And  he  would  proceed  to  interpret  the  statute  or  precedent 
accordingly.  The  jurists  had  learned  from  the  philosophers 
the  conception  of  a  single  universe,  which,  if  not  itself  a 
living  whole  and  animated  by  reason,  at  least  was  subject 
to  one  law,  the  law  of  nature.  Aristotle  had  spoken  of 
"natural  justice";  the  Stoics  taught  man  to  order  his  life 
after  nature  and  reason,  to  try  to  put  himself  into  harmony 
with  the  universe  of  which  he  was  a  part,  to  serve,  not  merely 
the  city  in  which  he  lived,  but  mankind  at  large.  Humanity 
thus  became  an  ideal.  Even  the  slave  was  a  part  of  nature 
as  much  as  his  master,  and  was  a  man  like  him.  The  Roman 
Empire,  breaking  down  the  barriers  between  city-states  and 
between  races,  giving  peace  within  its  borders,  forbidding 
such  practices  as  piracy  upon  the  inhabitants  of  another 
city  than  one's  own,  and  ultimately  in  212  a.d.  making  citi- 
zens of  all  freemen  in  the  Empire,  helped  on  this  ideal  of 
world-citizenship  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  law- 
yers, however,  would  usually  resort  to  the  ideal  principles 
of  natural  law  only  when  there  was  no  ordinary  law  in  exist- 
ence upon  the  case  in  question ;  and  they  did  not  refuse  to 
recognize  slavery  as  legal,  although  they  did  not  think  it 
sanctioned  by  the  law  of  nature.  But  as  the  Empire  wore  on, 
slaves  were  more  humanely  treated.  Women  also  secured 
a  much  more  favorable  position  before  the  law.  The  old  ar- 
bitrary power  of  the  head  of  the  family  over  its  members 


32  THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

was  greatly  reduced;  and  on  the  other  hand,  youth  was 
protected  by  the  law  from  losses  and  injuries  sustained 
through  its  natural  heedlessness  and  inexperience.  The 
Romans,  however,  seem  to  have  had  no  qualms  about  sub- 
jecting convicted  criminals  to  cruel  punishments,  and  tor- 
ture was  not  unknown  in  extracting  evidence,  especially 
from  slaves. 

Next  to  their  reputation  as  lawgivers  the  Romans  are 
most  justly  famed  as  builders.  Wherever  they  ruled  we  still 
r,      .  find  to-day  massive  remains  of  their  activity  in 

Remains  _  -'  ^  ■' 

of  Roman  this  respect.  They  seem  to  have  delighted  to 
'"^  show  the  majesty  of  their  power  and  their  faith 
in  its  permanence  by  extremely  solid  structures  of  the  most 
durable  materials,  built  with  a  proud  disregard  of  expense 
and  of  nature.  They  were  not  as  artistic  as  the  Greeks,  but 
were  abler  builders  and  engineers.  Their  roads,  though  only 
a  dozen  feet  or  so  in  width,  had  deep  foundations  and  cov- 
ered thousands  of  miles.  They  went  straight  on  regardless 
of  hill  and  valley  without  swerving  to  right  or  left,  and  were 
so  carefully  and  solidly  constructed  that  they  continued  to 
serve  commerce  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  can  still  be  traced 
in  many  places  to-day.  Their  magnificent  triumphal  arches, 
though  covered  with  sculpture  and  inscription,  were  large 
enough  to  serve  as  medieval  fortresses.  Their  vast  public 
baths,  which  also  served  as  social  clubs  and  lecture  halls, 
and  their  spacious  basilicas,  a  sort  of  combination  of  a 
modern  court-house  and  stock  exchange,  showed  structural 
skill  in  their  vast  vaults  of  masonry  and  decorative  genius 
in  column  and  mosaic.  The  aqueducts  which  brought  the 
water  for  city  use  were  huge  stone  channels  often  borne  on 
successions  of  arches  varying  in  height  according  to  the 
lay  of  the  land ;  and  they  spanned  rivers  by  bridges  made  of 
a  similar  succession  of  round  stone  arches  supported  on 
great  piers.  Apparently  every  town  of  size  had  its  arena  or 
amphitheater,  a  great  oval  surrounded  by  tiers  of  stone 
seats  supported  beneath  and  behind  by  successive  arches 
through  which  tunneled  a  perfect  labyrinth  of  exits  and 
entrances,  while  the  external  circumference  consisted  of  two 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


33 


or  more  stories  made  up  of  rows  of  arches  and  ornamented 
with  pilasters  and  columns.  Here  from  eight  thousand  to 
fifty  thousand  persons  could  look  on  at  the  combats  of  wild 
beasts  and  gladiators.  Such  huge  structures  can  still  be 
seen  to-day,  not  only  in  cities  of  Italy,  France,  and  Ger- 
many, but  amid  desert  surroundings  in  North  Africa. 
Temples  in  the  rectangular  Greek  style  surrounded  by  col- 
onnades, or  round  in  ground  plan  and  covered  by  a  dome; 
theaters  with  a  stage  wall  and  facade  three  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  feet  long  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  feet 
high,  one  of  which  still  stands  to-day  in  the  little  town 
of  Orange  in  southern  France;  forums  full  of  the  bases  of 
pillars  and  statues  long  since  fallen;  town  gates,  partly 
fortified  and  partly  ornamental ;  and  towers,  either  for  for- 
tifications or  for  signaling  purposes,  are  other  specimens 
of  the  more  frequent  and  imposing  of  Roman  public  re- 
mains, not  to  mention  the  ruins  of  once  sumptuous  private 
villas. 

For  the  economic  life  of  the  Roman  Empire  our  records 
and  remains  are  much  scantier  than  for  its  military  history, 
its  laws,  or  its  architecture.  Men  of  the  govern-  Economic 
ing  and  intellectual  classes,  the  nobles  and  the  conditions 
writers  of  Rome,  considered  money-making  a  vulgar  pur- 
suit ;  and  while  all  of  them  were  ready  enough  to  follow  it  if 
they  had  to  or  if  large  profits  were  in  sight,  they  did  not  like 
to  write  and  talk  about  it.  It  is  also  true  that  their  economic 
life  was  simple  and  undeveloped  compared  with  that  of  our 
age;  that  commerce,  industry,  advertising,  and  credit  were 
not  organized  on  so  vast  a  scale,  and  consequently  did  not 
exert  so  great  an  influence  on  all  other  sides  of  man's  exist- 
ence; while  other  matters,  such  as  the  belief  in  demons,  in 
supernatural  forces,  in  souls  of  inanimate  objects,  in  magic 
powers  of  animals  and  plants,  in  divination  and  witchcraft, 
which  to-day  have  much  less  effect  upon  human  conduct, 
at  that  time  controlled  men  potently.  But  economic  forces 
also  affected  their  fate  more  than  they  realized,  and  hence 
deserve  our  attention. 

The  coming  into  existence  of  the  Roman  Empire  made 


34         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

commerce  freer  and  easier  than  before  between  the  various 
countries  composing  it.  Trade  was  facihtated  by 
the  fine  roads  and  the  widespread  prevalence  of 
peace.  Yet,  aside  from  the  imperial  post  reserved  exclu- 
sively for  military  and  government  purposes,  the  Romans 
had  neither  a  letter  nor  parcels  post,  and  neither  transpor- 
tation nor  express  companies  of  any  considerable  size.  We 
know  little  of  ancient  merchant  vessels  except  that  they 
were  usually  small  and  not  especially  seaworthy.  Despite 
all  this,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  trade  with  distant  India, 
and  even  some  interchange  of  goods  with  China;  and  the 
balance  of  trade  seems  to  have  been  against  the  Empire, 
which  received  from  the  East  such  costly  wares  as  silks, 
spices,  medicinal  herbs,  and  gems.  Wild  beasts  for  the  arena 
came  from  central  Africa,  while  Belgic  Gaul  was  already 
known  for  its  draught-horses.  The  table  of  the  rich  epicure 
at  Rome  often  included  dishes  drawn  from  distant  points  of 
the  Empire,  such  as  oysters  from  Britain,  fish  from  the 
Black  Sea,  game  from  Asia  Minor  and  the  ^gean  Archi- 
pelago, hams  from  Gaul,  fruit  from  North  Africa,  dates 
from  Egypt,  and  nuts  from  Spain.  Staple  articles  of  trade 
all  over  the  Empire  were  grain,  timber,  metals,  skins,  leather, 
wool,  cattle,  slaves,  purple  dye,  wines,  and  olive  oil.  The 
products  of  the  vine  and  olive  tree  played  a  great  part  in 
Mediterranean  life.  The  first  squeeze  of  the  olive  press  gave 
oil  fit  for  food,  the  second  for  ointment,  the  third  for  illumi- 
nation, and  what  was  left  could  be  burned  as  fuel.  In  the 
early  fourth  century  we  have  listed  in  the  city  of  Rome 
twenty-three  hundred  places  where  olive  oil  was  sold  as 
against  only  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  bakeries.  Within 
the  Empire  the  merchant  usually  accompanied  his  goods  by 
land  or  sea  and  sold  them  himself  in  some  distant  port  or 
inland  town. 

One  might,  however,  buy  a  share  in  a  ship  or  other  com- 
mercial venture;  and  there  were  partnerships  and  business 
Capital  corporations,   which  were  perhaps  more  often 

and  interest    formed  for  purposes  of  banking  or  of  taking  over 
from  the  State  the  contract  of  collecting  the  taxes  in  this  or 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  35 

that  province.  Bookkeeping  was  a  universal  Roman  prac- 
tice, and  we  hear  of  large  transactions  made  on  credit.  It  is  _\^ 
certain  that  many  large  fortunes  were  amassed,  and  that 
capital  was  abundant.  There  was,  however,  a  prejudice 
against  the  professional  money-lender;  and  the  Emperor 
Augustus  degraded  a  noble  from  the  equestrian  rank,  be- 
cause he  had  borrowed  money  at  a  low  rate  of  interest  and 
then  loaned  it  out  again  at  a  higher  rate. 

A  greater  proportion  of  the  trade  was  in  raw  products 
and  less  in  manufactured  articles  than  to-day.  Millions  of 
bushels  of  wheat  were  brought  each  year  from 
Egypt  and  North  Africa  to  supply  the  populace 
of  Rome;  marble  columns  and  other  building  materials  were 
transported  for  public  works.  But  there  were  no  great  man- 
ufacturing establishments,  such  as  exist  to-day,  where  hun- 
dreds of  machines  turned  out  vast  quantities  of  copies  of  the 
same  article  for  diffusion  over  the  face  of  the  earth.  Articles 
were  hand-made  by  individual  workmen,  who  usually  sold 
what  they  made  each  from  his  own  tiny  workshop,  and 
whose  entire  set  of  utensils  and  stock  in  trade  could  usually 
be  packed  up  in  two  or  three  big  earthenware  jars.  Local 
retail  merchants  also  had  small  shops;  there  was  nothing 
resembling  the  modern  department  store.  Articles  were 
generally  bargained  for,  not  sold  at  a  fixed  price.  In  a  city  j 
of  any  size  each  trade  had  its  own  street  or  quarter.  Some- 
times those  engaged  in  the  same  trade  banded  together  in  a 
loose  social  and  religious  union;  but  the  imperial  govern- 
ment at  first  was  quite  unfavorable  to  such  societies,  and 
the  Emperor  Trajan  even  forbade  one  of  his  provincial 
governors  to  allow  a  city  in  Bithynia  to  organize  a  fire  com- 
pany for  fear  that  it  might  prove  a  hotbed  of  sedition.  A 
rich  man  might  have  an  entire  household  of  slaves  working 
at  the  same  trade,  but  still  their  labor  was  manual  and  so 
quite  different  from  the  modern  factory  system.  A  few  mil- 
itary engines  and  building  appliances  seem  to  have  been 
about  the  only  machinery  known  to  the  Romans.  It  is  some- 
times said  that  the  Romans  possessed  industrial  processes 
which  are  lost  to  the  world  to-day.    If  this  be  true,  it  is 


36         THE   HISTORY   OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

precisely  because  their  procedure  in  any  trade  was  largely 
by  rule  of  thumb  and  represented  a  separate  discovery,  hit 
upon  perhaps  by  chance,  instead  of  by  a  rational  use  of 
applied  science.  Many  workmen  mixed  religious  ritual  or 
magical  ceremony  and  incantations  with  their  material 
ingredients  and  actual  manual  and  mechanical  operations 
without  realizing  that  the  article  thus  made  was  entirely 
the  result  of  the  latter  factors  and  not  at  all  of  the  former. 
If  a  doubt  sometimes  entered  their  minds,  they  probably 
thought  it  safer  to  continue  making  the  thing  in  the  way  it 
had  always  been  made.  Some  places  were  noted  for  the 
manufacture  of  some  one  article,  as  Athens  had  been  for  its 
vases  before  the  time  of  the  Empire,  and  as  Gaul  became  for 
its  woolens  and  linens  during  the  Empire.  In  such  cases 
these  products  would  be  exported  to  other  localities.  But 
since  under  the  Empire  workmen  could  move  about  without 
danger  and  go  wherever  there  was  a  demand  for  their  serv- 
ices, the  general  rule  was  that  most  of  the  articles  used  by 
the  inhabitants  of  a  town  were  made  in  that  town. 

Historians  disagree  widely  in  their  estimates  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Empire  —  a  matter  difficult  to  determine. 
Rome  was  certainly  a  more  populous  city  than 

Population  ,  .  ,  ,       ^  i 

to-day,  as  its  vast  extent  and  many  rumous 
quarters  indicate,  and  there  were  at  least  half  a  dozen  other 
cities  each  with  a  population  of  three  hundred  thousand  or 
over.  But  of  course  lands  like  Gaul  and  Britain  had  a  much 
smaller  population  than  they  support  now,  while  Greece 
and  Italy  had  become  depopulated  to  a  considerable  extent 
by  the  time  of  the  Empire.  On  the  other  hand.  North  Africa 
was  more  populous  than  it  has  been  since.  The  East  was 
undoubtedly  the  most  thickly  settled  part  of  the  Empire. 
In  large  cities  like  Rome  and  Carthage  there  were  buildings 
many  stories  high,  and  the  narrow  streets  were  crowded  by 
the  passing  throng. 

Leaving  city  for  country,  and  commerce  and  industry 
Land  foi"  agriculture,  we  find  the  leading  feature  of 

system  ^j^g  \^^^  system  to  be  the  large  domain  of  the 

great  landowner,  cultivated  by  small  tenants  and  by  slaves. 


THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE  37 

These  slaves  were  sometimes  large  gangs  owned  by  the  land- 
owner; sometimes  smaller  groups  or  individuals  belonging 
to  the  more  prosperous  tenants.  If  the  great  landowner  had 
too  much  land  to  attend  to  himself,  he  would  lease  it  out  in 
large  tracts  to  contractors  {conductor es),  who  would  sublet 
these  to  tenants  or  cultivate  them  by  slave  labor.  Seldom  or 
never  did  the  person  who  actually  tilled  the  soil  own  it.  The 
emperor  was  the  largest  landowner  of  all.  As  war  waned 
and  conquest  ceased,  it  became  more  difficult  to  get  slaves, 
while  tenants  made  their  landlords  considerable  trouble  by 
roving  about  and  not  remaining  permanently  in  one  place. 
The  tenant  was,  however,  rather  dependent  upon  his  land- 
lord, who  usually  had  to  provide  him  with  ploughs,  domestic 
animals,  and  other  equipment  at  the  commencement  of  his 
tenancy.  The  Romans  spread  new  plants,  trees,  breeds  of 
domestic  animals,  and  perhaps  better  methods  of  cultiva- 
tion into  the  lesser  developed  parts  of  the  Empire,  such  as 
Britain. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  list  some  of  the  typical  occu- 
pations in  the  Roman  Empire.  Politicians  and  soldiers, 
lawyers    and    financiers,    priests   and    diviners,    ^ 

.    .  Occupations 

magicians  and  astronomers,  orators  and  gram- 
marians, poets  and  philosophers,  mathematicians  and  med- 
ical men,  musicians  and  athletes,  merchants  and  business 
agents,  sculptors  and  painters,  jewelers  and  goldsmiths, 
druggists  and  dealers  in  aromatics  and  pigments  and  un- 
guents, dyers  and  fullers,  tanners  and  potters,  workers  with 
fire  and  metals,  cooks  and  tavern-keepers,  fishermen  and 
fowlers  and  hunters,  farmers  and  gardeners,  shepherds  and 
grooms,  cowherds  and  swineherds,  pilots  and  sailors,  divers 
and  water-carriers,  embalmers  and  undertakers  and  guards 
of  sepulchers,  weavers  and  workers  in  wool,  makers  of  tunics 
and  manufacturers  of  linen,  miners,  turners,  shoemakers, 
millers,  bakers,  flower-sellers,  and  wine  merchants,  —  such 
were  the  workers  in  the  Roman  Empire. 

Social  life  in  the  Empire  has  already  been  touched  upon 
in  several  connections.  It  remains  to  point  out  that  eating, 
drinking,  and  love-making  absorbed  man  more  than  to-day 


38  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

for  fewer  artificial  amusements  and  intellectual  diversions 

^  .  , ,.,  were  available  to  him  then.  "Eat,  drink,  and 
Social  life         ,  .  , .     , , 

be   merry,   tor  to-morrow  we  die,     summed  up 

both  precisely  and  completely  the  life  of  many  an  ancient. 
"Clothes,"  however,  were  also  a  very  important  matter  to 
many,  and  the  wearing  of  gems  and  purple  linen,  of  chaplets 
and  garlands,  and  the  anointing  of  one's  self  with  oil,  pig- 
ments, aromatics,  and  unguents,  seem  to  have  provided  a 
great  source  of  satisfaction.  As  for  health,  medical  practice 
was  vastly  inferior  to  that  of  our  time,  and  was  full  of  magic, 
and  as  a  result  disease  was  more  rife.  But  outdoor  life  and 
the  heartless  practice  of  exposing  unpromising  infants  per- 
haps exerted  a  counteracting  influence  in  this  respect. 
Society  was,  however,  exceedingly  susceptible  to  the  ravages 
of  plagues  and  pestilences.  In  estimating  both  ancient  and 
medieval  callousness  to  cruel  customs  like  torture  and 
gladiatorial  combats  we  must  take  somewhat  into  account 
the  fact  that  men  were  then  more  accustomed  to  physical 
pain,  since  they  lacked  many  modern  preventives,  such  as 
dentistry  and  anaesthetics. 

Nowhere  can  a  better  notion  of  the  society  of  the  Roman 
Empire  be  obtained  than  from  the  pages  of  Plutarch,  who 
Plutarch's  wrotc  his  famous  Lives  of  Illustrious  Men  and  his 
classical °^  so-callcd  Moral  Essays  about  lOO  a.d.  The  latter 
civilization  is  really  a  large  collection  of  essays  on  the  most 
miscellaneous  topics,  giving  us  many  glimpses  of  ancient 
science,  religion,  superstition,  manners,  and  morals.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  biographies,  where  he  not  only  sets  before 
us  in  pairs  for  comparison  the  great  names  in  Greek  and 
Roman  history,  and  tells  many  facts  for  which  we  have  no 
other  sources,  but  also  recounts  anecdotes,  quotes  from  his 
favorite  authors,  often  pauses  to  moralize  and  to  supply  us 
with  precious  detail  concerning  the  civilization  and  customs 
of  his  own  day  as  well  as  of  the  time  of  the  man  whose 
character  and  career  he  is  unfolding.  Plutarch  himself  was 
a  cultured  and  humane  man,  who  often  could  not  approve 
of  the  deeds  of  the  great  men  of  the  past,  and  who  shows  us 
the  higher  standards  of  morality  and  altruism  that  were 


THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE  39 

coming  to  prevail  in  the  peaceful  Empire,  where,  too,  how- 
ever, many  vices  and  superstitions  of  antiquity  were  still 
perpetuated. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Geography  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

From  maps  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  of  modern  Europe  determine:  — 

1.  What  modern  European  states  would  lie  entirely  within  the  boun- 
dary of  the  Roman  Empire  at  its  greatest  extent? 

2.  Which  would  lie  entirely  outside  those  boundaries? 

3.  Which  would  overlap  those  boundaries? 

4.  What  Roman  province  included  modern  Roumania? 

5.  Compare  the  boundaries  of  ancient  Gaul  and  modern  France. 

6.  Compare  the  extent  and  location  of  Germany  in  Roman  times  with 
that  of  the  German  Empire  to-day. 

7.  What  are  the  present  names  of  the  districts  in  North  Africa  which 
were  once  ruled  by  Rome,  and  who  rules  each  of  them  to-day? 

Influence  of  Greece  on  Rome. 
A.  Holm,  History  of  Greece  (English  translation,  London,  1902),  vol.  IV, 
chap.  XXIV,  pp.  514-24. 

Greek  Culture  under  the  Romans. 
J.  P.  Mahafify,  Survey  of  Greek  Civilization  (New  York,  1899),  chap.  x. 

Municipal  Life  in  the  Empire. 

S.  Dill,  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  Marcus  Aurelius  (London,  1905), 
book  II,  chap.  11,  pp.  196-250. 

The  Roman  Provinces. 

E.  S.  Bouchier,  Life  and  Letters  in  Roman  Africa  (Oxford,  1913),  pp.l-2l. 

F.  J.  Haverfield,  Roman  Britain,  in  Cambridge  Medieval  History  (Cam- 
bridge, 191 1),  vol.  I,  pp.  367-77. 

E.  S.  Bouchier,  Syria  as  a  Roman  Province  (Oxford,  1916),  any  chapter. 

Roman  Law. 
W.  A.  Hunter,  Introduction  to  Roman  Law  (London,  1900),  pp.  1-15. 

A  good  brief  history  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  one  volume  is  H.  S.  Jones, 

The  Roman  Empire  (New  York,  1908).  For  economic  conditions  in 
the  Empire  see  W.  S.  Davis,  The  Influence  of  Wealth  in  Imperial  Rome 
(New  York,  1910).  The  classic  on  the  city-state  is  N.  D.  Fustel  de 
Coulanges,  The  Ancient  City  (English  translation,  Boston,  1901). 
See  also  W.  W.  Fowler,  The  City  State  (London,  1904). 

Source  Reading. 

Any  one  of  Juvenal's  Satires  or  of  Suetonius's  Lives  of  the  Twelve  Ccesars 
will,  like  Plutarch's  Lives  and  Morals,  be  found  to  throw  much  light 
on  life  and  thought  in  the  Roman  Empire.  Both  may  be  had  in 
English  translations. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD   OUTSIDE   THE   EMPIRE 

One  thinks  of  the  Roman  Empire  as  including  the  whole 
ancient  civilized  world,  except  distant  China  and  India. 
....     r        But  it  should  be  remembered  that,  if  the  Romans 

umits  of  1        1     iM 

the  Roman  had  Spread  Greek  culture  to  Western  lands  like 
Empire  q^^j  ^^^  Britain,  they  had  lost  a  large  part  of 

the  empire  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  that  their  frontier 
went  no  farther  east  than  the  Euphrates  River  and  the 
Arabian  Desert.  They  were  unable  to  conquer  and  hold  the 
Tigris- Euphrates  Valley,  once  the  most  civilized  and  influ- 
ential region  on  earth.  Here  they  were  successfully  opposed, 
first,  by  the  Parthian,  and  then,  after  227  A.D.,  by  the  Per- 
sian Kingdom.  Of  the  vast  continent  of  Africa  they  occu- 
pied only  the  Nile  Valley  and  the  Mediterranean  coast.  The 
greater  part  of  the  area  and  many  of  the  nations  of  modern 
Europe  lie  outside  the  Roman  boundary.  It  did  not  include 
Russia,  Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden,  Ireland;  it  included 
only  a  little  of  Scotland,  the  Netherlands,  and  the  German 
Empire;  and  not  all  of  Austria-Hungary.  In  these  lands, 
as  well  as  in  the  East,  lived  peoples  whom  Rome  had  failed 
to  subdue,  and  who  were  destined  some  day  to  subdue  her. 
By  117  A.D.  she  had  reached  the  limit  of  her  conquests;  the 
question  then  became  how  long  would  she  hold  what  she 
had?  In  distant  Britain  she  had  to  build  walls  across  the 
island  to  keep  out  the  Picts  and  other  barbarians  of  the 
northern  highlands,  while  Celtic  Ireland  was  left  uncon- 
quered  under  the  rule  of  the  chiefs  of  many  clans.  Around 
the  Baltic  Sea  and  to  the  east  of  it  dwelt  Scandinavian  and 
Finnish  and  Slavic  tribes  of  whom  the  Romans  knew  next  to 
nothing,  and  who  were  not  to  appear  in  history  for  some  time 
to  come.  Nearer  to  the  Roman  frontier  were  the  "German 
barbarians,"  extending  from  the  North  to  the  Black  Sea. 
They  were  to  deal  the  death-blow  to  ancient  Rome. 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  41 

Caesar  speaks  briefly  of  the  character  and  customs  of 
these  German  barbarians  in  his  account  of  his  conquest  of 
Gaul,  but  the  chief,  and  indeed  almost  the  sole,  c^^^^.^  ^r 
description  of  them  which  has  come  down  to  us  the  early 
from  Roman  times  is  the  brief  Germania  of  ^'"'"^"^ 
Tacitus,  written  in  98  a.d.  Scholars  have  fought  almost 
tooth  and  nail  over  the  interpretation  of  a  sentence  or  the 
wording  of  a  phrase  in  this  precious  text.  Every  student  of 
the  Middle  Ages  should  read  for  himself  the  dozen  of  its 
pages  that  deal  with  the  traits  and  institutions  of  the  Ger- 
mans as  a  whole,  and  get  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  this 
original  source  which  forms  the  basis  of  all  modern  accounts 
of  the  early  Germans.  Although  Tacitus  was  one  of  the 
ablest  of  Roman  historians,  one  caution  must  be  observed 
in  reading  him.  In  his  other  historical  writings  we  find  him 
bitter  against  many  persons  and  things  in  Roman  society 
and  politics;  this  bias  and  discontent  may  make  him  too 
ready  to  see  good  in  the  Germans  and  their  customs.  When, 
for  instance,  he  says  that  among  the  Germans  freedmen  are 
of  slight  account,  except  in  those  tribes  where  the  king 
elevates  them  above  freemen  and  even  nobles,  he  is  prob- 
ably sneering  at  the  imperial  freedmen  of  Rome  —  who 
often  held  high  governmental  positions  under  the  emperor 
—  rather  than  accurately  depicting  German  conditions. 
When  he  describes  German  funerals  as  exceedingly  simple, 
he  probably  has  it  in  mind  to  reprove  Roman  pomp  and 
luxury,  and  ignores  the  elaborate  games  and  feasting  that 
often  accompanied  the  funeral  of  a  German  chieftain. 

Aside  from  Csesar  and  Tacitus,  our  sources  of  information 
about  the  early  Germans  may  be  roughly  summarized  as 
follows:  (i)  primitive  utensils,  valuables,  and  other  human 
remains,  which  are  found  most  richly  in  excavations  made 
in  Scandinavia;  (2)  brief  and  usually  unsatisfactory  inci- 
dental allusions  to  the  Germans  in  the  works  of  Greek  and 
Roman  geographers,  travelers,  romancers,  and  historians, 
of  whom  the  last  simply  recount  the  wars  of  Rome  against 
the  barbarians  and  tell  little  of  the  Germans  themselves; 
(3)  laws  issued  in  Latin,  after  the  break-up  of  the  Roman 


42  THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Empire,  by  the  German  tribes  who  formed  states  in  the 
West;  (4)  early  German  literature,  such  as  the  poem  Beo- 
wulf, the  mythological  Eddas  of  Iceland,  the  skaldic  poetry 
of  Norway,  the  sagas  or  prose  histories,  and  the  Nibehmgen- 
lied.  Unfortunately  most  of  this  literature  was  not  written 
down  until  the  twelfth  century,  and  so  must  be  used  with 
caution  as  a  source  for  the  language,  religion,  and  customs 
of  the  barbarian  Germans  of  Roman  times.  The  laws,  too, 
though  written  down  much  sooner  after  the  fall  of  Rome, 
are  apt  to  show  Teutonic  customs  considerably  altered  by 
lapse  of  time,  Christian  influence,  contact  with  Roman 
civilization,  and  the  altered  circumstances  under  which  the 
Germans  were  by  then  living.  To  sum  up,  our  scanty  sources 
about  the  early  Germans  are  spread  out  thin  over  a  period 
of  some  three  thousand  years,  beginning  with  archaeological 
finds  dating  fifteen  hundred  years  or  so  before  Christ,  and 
ending  with  poems  and  stories  not  set  down  in  writing  until 
nearly  twelve  hundred  years  after  Christ.  In  the  middle  of 
this  long  dark  road  the  little  beacon  of  Tacitus  sends  forth 
a  welcome  light. 

The  Germans  belonged  to  the  northern  European  race 
and  to  the  Aryan  or  Indo-European  linguistic  group.  Their 
The  Ger-  earliest  home  was,  perhaps,  the  region  about  the 
iTome  a^nd^  wcst  end  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  where  from  about 
expansion  i^qq  to  500  B.C.  archseological  evidence  shows 
them  to  have  been  in  the  bronze  age  of  civilization.  Toward 
the  close  of  this  period  they  appear  to  have  expanded  south- 
east to  the  Vistula  River  and  the  Carpathian  Mountains. 
They  next  came  under  the  uplifting  influence  of  the  higher, 
iron-age  type  of  civilization  characteristic  of  the  Celts  to 
the  southwest.  Meanwhile  the  Germans  were  also  advanc- 
ing in  this  southwestern  direction,  until  they  reached  the 
Rhine  and  Main  Rivers.  A  century  before  Christ  two  peo- 
ples called  the  "  Cimbri  "  and  "Teutones"  entered  Gaul  and 
soon  threatened  Italy;  but  were  finally  annihilated  by 
Roman  armies,  the  Teutones  in  southern  Gaul  just  as  they 
were  preparing  to  cross  the  Alps,  and  the  Cimbri  the  follow- 
ing year  just  after  they  had  crossed  into  northern  Italy.  By 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  43 

Caesar's  time  the  Germans  were  again  pressing  into  Gaul. 
He  checked  their  progress  and  brought  the  territory  from 
the  Pyrenees  to  the  Rhine  under  Roman  rule.  Through  the 
time  of  the  Empire  the  Rhine  and  Danube  Rivers,  roughly 
speaking,  continued  to  be  the  frontier  between  Romans  and 
Germans. 

Csesar  was  impressed  with  the  dififerences  between  the 
Gauls  and  the  Germans,  and  Tacitus  regarded  the  Germans 
as  quite  distinct  from  all  other  peoples  and  prob-  Personal 
ably  an  unmixed,  indigenous  race.  His  reason,  appearance 
however,  —  that  no  one  would  consent  to  live  in  such  wild 
forests  and  filthy  swamps  and  so  cold  a  climate  as  theirs, 
unless  he  had  been  born  there  and  knew  no  other  clime,  — 
scarcely  recommends  itself  to  the  serious  consideration  of 
the  modern  student  of  ethnology.  But  their  large,  tall 
bodies,  fierce,  blue  eyes,  and  reddish  hair  all  marked  them 
off  from  the  shorter  and  darker  men  of  Mediterranean  race. 
Skeletons  —  some  of  them  seven  feet  long  —  have  been  found 
to  bear  out  his  assertion  of  their  height,  but  they  sometimes 
dyed  their  hair  red,  a  fashion  which  came  to  be  copied  in 
Rome.  Roman  ladies  imported  a  kind  of  soap  from  Germany 
for  this  purpose ;  the  Emperor  Caligula  wore  a  German  wig, 
dyed  the  hair  of  Gallic  prisoners  in  his  triumphal  procession 
to  make  them  look  like  Germans,  and  had  a  bodyguard  of 
Germans  who  were  personally  devoted  to  him,  and  who, 
when  they  heard  of  his  assassination,  in  a  fit  of  grief  and 
rage  tried  to  avenge  his  death  by  killing  every  one  in  sight. 

Warfare,  plundering,  and  hunting  were  the  favorite  occu- 
pations; loafing,  carousing,  and  gambling  were  the  chief 
diversions  of  the  German  freeman,  who  left  the  Mode 
care  of  house,  fields,  and  cattle  to  the  women,  old  °^  ^^^^ 
men,  and  others  who  could  not  fight,  or  to  his  slaves,  if  he 
was  fortunate  enough  to  own  some.  The  hut  was  a  rude 
affair  of  rough  timber  more  or  less  plastered  with  mud.  In 
winter  the  Germans  sometimes  tried  to  keep  warm  in  caves 
dug  underground.  Clothing  was  simple  and  made  largely  of 
skins  of  animals,  which  left  much  of  the  body  uncovered. 
Caesar  says  that  they  bathed  in  the  rivers  even  in  the  depth 


44         THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  winter;  but  Tacitus  makes  them  take  warm  baths  in  cold 
weather  and  sleep  late  in  the  morning.  As  Caesar  knew  them, 
they  lived  mainly  on  milk,  cheese,  and  flesh,  and  raised  little 
grain.  Swine  and  horses,  as  well  as  cattle,  were  used  for 
food.  Poultry  and  bees  were  kept,  and  a  fermented  drink 
called  "mead"  was  made  from  the  honey.  It  is  a  moot 
point  whether  they  had  private  or  communal  landownership. 
Caesar  and  Tacitus  imply  that  the  community  controlled  the 
distribution  of  land ;  and  it  seems  likely  that  the  plots  held 
by  different  individuals  were  ploughed  and  tilled  together, 
while  forest,  swamp,  and  pasture  land  were  not  subdivided, 
but  used  by  all  in  common.  In  the  time  of  Tacitus  their  cul- 
tivation was  not  at  all  intensive  and  they  had  plenty  of 
spare  land.  They  had  no  cities  and  little  that  could  be  called 
commerce  or  industry.  Trade  was  mere  barter  except  as 
merchants  from  the  Roman  Empire  introduced  coins.  From 
the  barbarians  these  traders  got  amber,  furs,  goose  feathers, 
and  slaves.  Capital  and  interest  were  unknown  to  the  Ger- 
mans. Those  who  lived  along  the  seacoast  had  rude  boats, 
but  considerable  nautical  skill  and  a  passionate  love  for  sea 
voyages.  They  had  almost  no  art,  but  were  fond  of  orna- 
ments of  gold,  and  we  can  perhaps  trace  the  germ  of  medie- 
val heraldry  and  coats  of  arms  in  the  remark  of  Tacitus  that 
"their  shields  are  distinguished  by  very  carefully  selected 
colors."  He  also  mentions  their  "ancient  songs,"  but  they 
seem  to  have  had  no  written  literature  except  the  brief 
Riinic  inscriptions  which  are  occasionally  found,  written  in 
letters  copied  from  those  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

From  the  accounts  of  Caesar  and  Tacitus  one  might  judge 
that  these  barbarians  were  a  thoughtful  people,  capable  of 
Mental  reflection  and  argument.   Thus,  Caesar  says  that 

traits  they  offer  many  reasons  for  their  custom  of  re- 

distributing the  land  annually  among  the  clans  and  kinship 
groups,  which  reasons  he  proceeds  to  list.  He  also  gives  the 
reasons  why  they  lay  waste  the  land  about  them  in  all  direc- 
tions. Tacitus  represents  them  as  thinking  it  inconsistent 
with  the  sublimity  of  celestial  beings  to  confine  the  gods 
within  walls  or  to  liken  them  to  the  human  face  and  form. 


THE   BARBARIAN  WORLD  45 

They  are  said  to  discuss  important  private  matters  and 
affairs  of  state  at  their  drunken  feasts,  "because  they  think 
that  at  no  other  time  is  the  mind  more  open  to  fair  judg- 
ment or  more  Inflamed  to  mighty  deeds.  .  .  .  On  the  day 
following  the  matter  is  reconsidered  and  a  particular  advan- 
tage is  secured  on  each  occasion.  They  take  counsel  when 
they  are  unable  to  practice  deception;  they  decide  when 
they  cannot  be  misled."  ^  One  suspects,  however,  that 
Caesar  and  Tacitus  have  put  these  reasons  into  the  mouths 
of  the  Germans,  and  in  any  case  they  are  incorrect  explana- 
tions of  the  customs  in  question.  From  the  later  literature 
of  the  Germans  themselves  it  has  been  inferred  that  they 
were  shrewd  and  somewhat  skeptical,  and  of  a  philosophical, 
moralizing,  and  epigrammatic  turn  of  mind. 

We  know  little  of  the  religious  beliefs  and  practices  of  the 
Germans  before  their  conversion  to  Christianity.  Caesar 
says  that  they  worship  only  those  gods  whom 
they  can  see;  namely,  such  forces  In  nature  as 
the  sun,  moon,  and  fire.  Tacitus  in  one  passage  tells  of  their 
carrying  into  battle  "images  and  standards  taken  from  their 
sacred  groves";  elsewhere  he  states  that  they  make  no 
images  of  their  gods,  whom  they  worship  not  in  temples 
made  by  hands  but  In  sacred  groves.  He  applies  the  Roman 
names  Mercury,  Hercules,  and  Mars  to  the  German  gods 
Woden,  Thor,  and  Tiu,  whom  they  faintly  suggest.  He  tells 
us  that  the  Germans  sometimes  practiced  human  sacrifice, 
and  that  they  were  addicted  to  many  forms  of  divination,  by 
bits  of  wood,  by  sacred  horses,  and  by  birds.  From  other 
sources  we  learn  that  they  burned  their  dead  and  believed 
in  a  future  life.  They  worshiped  their  ancestors,  and  indi- 
cations of  fetish  worship  are  seen  in  their  sacred  trees, 
whence  are  derived  our  Maypoles  and  Christmas  trees. 
Their  early  religion  was  also  marked  by  much  magic  ritual. 
Woden  was  their  teacher  in  mystic  writing,  Incantations, 
and  the  performance  of  marvels.  For  legends  of  their  gods 
and  heroes  somewhat  similar  to  Greek  mythology,  we  have 

^  There  is  a  similar  passage  in  the  Greek  historian  Herodotus  about  the 
Persians. 


46  THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

to  turn  to  the  Icelandic  Eddas  and  German  Nibelungenlied, 
which  date  in  their  present  extant  form  from  the  twelfth 
century. 

Although  the  women  had  to  do  manual  labor  in  the  fields 
as  well  as  in  the  home,  their  social  position  was  fairly  high 
Position  for  an  uncivilized  people.  Tacitus  says  that  the 
of  woman  gjj.jg  -^ygj-e  of  the  same  vigor  and  stature  as  the 
young  men,  which  suggests  that  they  were  neither  over- 
worked nor  starved.  They  dressed  with  arms  and  part  of 
the  breasts  bare  without  losing  the  respect  of  the  men. 
Marriages  were  not  contracted  at  so  early  an  age  as  is  com- 
mon among  Southern  and  Oriental  peoples,  and  monogamy 
prevailed.  "Almost  alone  among  barbarian  peoples," 
writes  Tacitus,  "they  are  content  with  one  wife  each,  ex- 
cept those  few  who,  because  of  their  high  rank  rather  than 
out  of  lust,  make  several  marriages.  For  no  one  there  laughs 
at  vice,  nor  is  corrupting  and  being  corrupted  spoken  of  as 
the  way  of  the  world."  In  some  tribes  widows  were  forbid- 
den to  remarry,  and  their  voluntary  death  met  with  the  ap- 
proval of  tribal  opinion.  The  women  were  sometimes  at 
hand  to  encourage  the  warriors  in  battle,  and  the  Germans 
feared  captivity  "far  more  intensely  on  account  of  their 
women  than  for  themselves."  Certain  women  were  looked 
upon  with  awe  as  prophetesses. 

Mothers  nursed  their  own  children,  who  grew  up  naked 
and  sturdy,  ignorant  alike  of  the  allurements  of  Roman 
amphitheaters  and  modern  automobiles.  The 
father  had  the  legal  right  to  reject  the  newborn 
babe  and  leave  it  to  die  of  exposure,  a  practice  which  was  all 
too  frequent  among  the  cultured  Greeks  and  Romans,  but 
after  he  had  once  taken  it  to  his  bosom  he  could  not  kill  it. 
Tacitus  implies  that  the  children  were  seldom  exposed. 
When  a  son  married  or  was  allowed  by  the  father  to  receive 
his  arms  from  any  other  man  in  the  popular  assembly,  and 
when  a  daughter  married,  the  paternal  authority  over  them 
ceased.  The  husband's  power  over  the  wife  was  not  quite  so 
great  as  that  of  the  father  over  the  children.  In  early  days 
the  wife  was  either  stolen  from  another  tribe  or  peacefully 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  47 

purchased  from  her  kindred,  if  two  persons  within  the  same 
tribe  married.  In  this  latter  case  the  wife's  kinsmen  did  not 
entirely  abandon  their  interest  in  her  welfare,  and  could  in 
some  instances  offer  her  legal  protection. 

As  the  last  sentence  suggests,  in  addition  to  the  family 
the  Germans  had  another  larger  social  group,  the  Sib,  or 
association  of  kinsmen.  This  institution  was  The  kin- 
analogous  to  the  gens  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  ^^'p  2''°"p 
Possibly  the  Sib  was  older  than  the  family,  a  relic  of  the  time 
when  a  wandering  life  was  led  and  before  settlement  on  the 
land  and  the  founding  of  separate  households  and  homes 
took  place.  Members  of  the  Sib  fought  side  by  side  in  battle, 
and  stood  by  each  other  in  lawsuits,  providing  security  or 
compurgators,  and  receiving  the  Wergeld  or  damages  for  a 
slain  member.^  The  Sib  either  itself  acted  as  guardian  of 
widows  and  orphans  or  appointed  some  individual  so  to  act. 

Both  nobles  and  slaves  were  to  be  found  among  the  early 
Germans.  Some  of  the  privileges  and  prerogatives  of  the 
nobility  will  be  brought  out  later  in  the  course  Nobility 
of  this  chapter.  The  slave  class  was  made  up  of  ^"*^  slavery 
captives  in  war,  delinquent  debtors,  men  who  had  gambled 
away  their  freedom  or  sold  themselves  into  servitude  to  get 
something  to  eat  and  wear,  the  children  of  slaves,  and  slaves 
purchased  from  other  tribes.  The  father  of  a  family  had  the 
right  to  sell  child  or  wife,  if  he  were  in  dire  need.  By  strict 
law  the  slave  was  a  mere  chattel;  he  could  not  contract  a 
legal  marriage  and  had  no  position  before  the  law;  his  mas- 
ter was  responsible  for  his  acts  and  had  the  power  of  life  and 
death  over  him.  According  to  Tacitus,  however,  most  of 
the  servile  population  among  the  Germans  had  houses  of 
their  own,  and  paid  their  masters  a  portion  of  their  produce, 
and  were  seldom  beaten  or  punished;  and  so  might  better 
be  called  serfs  than  slaves. 

As  war  was  the  German's  chief  occupation,  so  the  army 
was  the  oldest    political    organization  and  the    Army  and 
bearing  of  arms  the  sign  and  test  of  freedom  and    freedom 
of  citizenship.     Tacitus  says  that  it  is  "not  customary  for 

*  For  compurgators  or  oath-helpers  see  page  51;  for  Wergeld  see  page  52. 


48  THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

any  one  to  assume  arms  until  the  tribe  has  recognized  his 
competency  to  use  them."  Some  kinsman  or  chief  equips 
the  youth  with  his  shield  and  spear  in  the  presence  of  the 
whole  army,  or  popular  assembly,  which  amounts  to  the 
same  thing.  "  Before  this  he  was  only  a  member  of  a  house-' 
hold;  hereafter  he  is  a  member  of  the  tribe."  This  one  sen- 
tence and  this  custom  suggest  a  great  deal.  The  son  passes 
from  the  paternal  authority  at  an  early  age  to  become  a  free 
warrior  on  an  equality  with  his  fellows.  This  Is  very  differ- 
ent from  the  custom  of  Chinese  society,  for  instance,  where 
the  son  even  after  marriage  lives  on  under  his  father's  roof, 
where  old  men  and  their  ideas  or  lack  thereof  control  life, 
and  where  duty  to  the  family  takes  precedence  of  business 
obligations  or  patriotism.  It  is  also  very  different  from  early 
Roman  usage  where  the  father  retained  his  authority,  re- 
gardless of  whether  his  sons  married  or  not ;  and  could  pun- 
ish a  son  even  after  he  had  served  as  consul  at  the  head  of 
the  army. 

It  was  the  duty  and  privilege  of  every  freeman  to  attend 
the  tribal  assembly  in  arms,  and  the  warrior  who  had  left 
Popular  his  shield  behind  him  on  the  battlefield  was  not 

assembly  permitted  to  enter.  The  influence  of  religion  is 
manifest  in  the  holding  of  the  assembly  —  at  the  time  either 
of  the  new  or  full  moon  —  in  an  open  place  consecrated  to 
the  war  god  Tiu,  where  the  hallowed  ground  was  roped  ofif 
and  priests  proclaimed  silence  and  kept  order.  The  freeman, 
however,  was  fond  of  asserting  his  independence  by  arriving 
late.  Debate  was  regulated  by  age,  rank,  military  prowess, 
eloquence,  and  power  of  persuasion.  The  mass  of  freemen 
present  usually  contented  themselves  with  shouting  their 
dissent  in  chorus  or  clashing  their  spears  against  their 
shields  in  unison  as  a  token  of  approval.  A  council  of  chiefs 
discussed  beforehand  the  matters  to  be  submitted  to  the 
assembly.  The  assembly  decided  the  question  of  peace  and 
war,  had  criminal  jurisdiction,  chose  the  magistrates  to  act 
as  judges  in  the  localities,  and  was  consulted  on  all  other 
important  matters.  It  seldom  legislated  In  the  modern  sense 
of  the  word,  because  law  among  the  early  Germans  was 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  49 

regarded  as  customary,  sacred,  eternal,  and  unchangeable. 
The  object  of  government,  they  thought,  was  not  to  make 
new  laws,  but  to  maintain  the  good  old  customs.  Neither 
was  there  any  state  taxation,  because  there  was  no  coinage 
and  few  officials,  and  all  government  and  warfare  were 
attended  to  personally  by  the  freemen  without  receiving 
pay.  Tacitus  says,  however,  that  it  was  customary  to 
make  voluntary  gifts  of  honor  to  the  chiefs. 

Caesar  states  that  the  tribe  chose  a  single  leader  only 
when  about  to  engage  in  war;  and  some  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  appear  not  to  have  had  kings  until  they 
invaded  the  Roman  Empire.  Tacitus  affirms 
that  their  kings  are  chosen  for  their  ancestry;  their  gen- 
erals, for  their  valor;  that  the  power  of  the  former  is  limited, 
and  that  the  latter  lead  more  by  example  than  command, 
only  the  priests  venturing  to  inflict  such  penalties  as  death, 
flogging,  or  imprisonment.  The  first  part  of  this  statement 
probably  refers  to  the  custom  of  electing  the  king  from 
among  the  members  of  some  one  noble  family.  The  king 
was  liable  to  be  deposed  by  the  assembly  or  violently  slain 
by  some  offended  warrior  or  ambitious  rival. 

Besides  the  tribal  army,  the  Germans  had  a  smaller  and 
more  personal  military  organization,  commonly  known  by 
its  Latin  name,  comitatus,  indicating  a  band  of  The 
comrades  {comites).  Caesar  tells  us  that  fre-  <^o^^^(^^^s 
quently  in  an  assembly  a  chief  would  propose  a  raid  upon 
some  neighboring  tribe  and  ask  for  volunteers  to  join 
therein.  It  was  easy  to  get  them,  because,  as  Tacitus  says, 
"If  their  native  state  sinks  into  the  lethargy  of  long  peace 
and  quiet,  many  of  the  noble  youths  voluntarily  seek  those 
tribes  that  are  still  carrying  on  war."  Such  young  men 
would  join  the  following  of  some  distinguished  chief  and 
take  an  oath  "to  defend  and  protect  him  and  give  him  all 
the  glory  of  their  brave  deeds."  To  survive  him  in  battle 
was  a  lasting  infamy.  He  in  return  had  to  support  them 
with  the  proceeds  of  plunder  and  war.  In  Beowulf  the  com- 
panions live  in  their  lord's  hall  and  his  wife  mends  their 
clothes.    The  size  and  fighting  ability  of  his   comitatus 


50         THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

brought  fame  and  influence  to  its  leader  both  in  his  own  and 
neighboring  tribes.  The  followers  did  not  regard  their  posi- 
tion as  dependent  in  any  humiliating  or  restrictive  sense, 
but  felt  themselves  the  social  equals  of  their  leader.  There 
were,  nevertheless,  in  the  time  of  Tacitus  grades  among 
them,  "assigned  by  the  judgment  of  their  leader"  and 
"great  rivalry  ...  as  to  who  shall  rank  first  with  the  chief." 
But  on  the  whole  we  see  in  the  comitatus  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  importance  of  youth,  social  equality,  and  volun- 
tary organization  among  the  early  Germans. 

Although  the  Germans  engaged  sq  much  in  war,  they 
were  not  a  lawless  people.  They  had  their  ancient  customs 
Early  Ger-  and  Standards,  which  they  tried  to  fix  in  their 
man  law  memories  by  alliterative  or  proverbial  expres- 
sions. They  had  their  folk-courts,  local  magistrates,  and 
"law-speakers,"  but  no  police.  A  man's  kindred  were  sup- 
posed to  look  after  him  and  see  that  he  kept  the  peace.  The 
individuals  concerned  in  a  case  and  the  community  as  a 
w^hole  had  to  bring  wrongdoers  to  court,  and  to  enforce 
rights  or  execute  sentences  after  these  had  been  determined 
in  court.  The  law  was  very  strict,  and  less  fair  than  the  law 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  One  had  to  suffer  for  his  act,  regard- 
less of  whether  his  intention  had  been  good  or  evil. 

Legal  procedure  consisted  chiefly  of  set  forms  of  words 
and  ceremonies  employed  by  the  litigants  themselves  to 
Judicial  decide  the  controversy.  These  forms  must  be 
procedure  observed  most  scrupulously,  and  one  was  not 
permitted  to  repeat  in  order  to  rectify  a  mistake.  A  lawsuit 
normally  opened  by  the  plaintiff's  going  with  witnesses  to 
the  house  of  the  defendant  and  formally  summoning  him  to 
appear  in  court.  At  the  court  the  plaintiff,  holding  a  staff  in 
his  hand,  made  his  complaint  in  set  terms,  and  the  defend- 
ant had  to  answer  by  denying  each  charge  fully  and  explic- 
itly or  he  would  be  regarded  as  admitting  its  truth.  The 
court  then  straightway  decided  which  of  the  two  parties 
should  be  put  to  further  proof.  Their  methods  of  proof  were 
not  the  careful  sifting  of  evidence,  but  by  oath  or  by  ordeal. 
The  only  sort  of  testimony  that  they  desired  was  that  of 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  51 

ceremonial  witnesses  to  the  effect  that  in  the  case  in  ques- 
tion the  legal  forms  prescribed  by  custom,  such  as  handing 
one  a  spear,  glove,  or  sod,  had  been  duly  observed;  or  the 
sworn  assertions  of  the  friends  and  kinsmen  of  each  party 
that  they  believed  him  to  be  a  credible  person.  Both  oath 
and  ordeal  were  religious  tests.  In  taking  an  oath  one  in- 
voked the  gods  and  feared  condign  punishment  from  them 
if  one  perjured  one's  self.  Sometimes  one  litigant  was 
allowed  to  establish  his  side  of  the  case  by  his  solitary  oath, 
but  more  often  either  the  plaintiff  or  defendant  was  required 
to  produce  a  certain  number  of  oath-helpers  to  swear  with 
him.  Ordeals,  as  we  know  them  later,  had  been  considerably 
altered  by  the  Christian  Church  from  their  original  form  of 
appeals  to  the  judgment  of  heathen  deities.  The  two  liti- 
gants might  draw  lots  to  determine  who  was  in  the  right,  or 
they  might  engage  in  single  combat  with  the  idea  that  God 
would  give  victory  to  the  right.  Or  the  one  who  had  made 
the  less  favorable  impression  upon  the  court  by  his  pleading 
might  have  the  burden  of  proof  put  upon  him  in  the  form  of 
undergoing  the  ordeal  of  fire  or  of  water.  He  might  be 
thrown  into  holy  water,  which  was  supposed  to  reject  any 
guilty  person,  so  that  if  he  floated  on  its  surface  he  was 
condemned,  while  if  he  sank  he  was  believed  to  be  innocent. 
Or  he  might  have  to  plunge  his  hand  into  boiling  water,  or 
carry  a  red-hot  bar  for  three  paces,  or  walk  a  short  distance 
over  hot  ploughshares.  The  injured  member  was  then 
bound  up,  and  if  after  three  days  it  was  found  to  be  healed, 
the  decision  was  in  his  favor;  if  otherwise,  he  was  pronounced 
guilty.  Still  another  ordeal  consisted  in  trying  to  swallow  a 
large  morsel  of  bread  or  cheese  without  its  sticking  in  the 
throat. 

It  has  been  said  that  there  were  no  police  to  enforce  this 
system  of  justice,  but  public  opinion  was  behind  it,  and  if 
any  man  refused  to  submit  to  it,  he  was  liable    ^   , 

1111-  1  '1        Outlawry 

to  be  outlawed ;  that  is  to  say,  he  was  put  outside 
the  peace  of  the  tribe.   No  one  in  the  tribe  could  protect  or 
shelter  him ;  in  fact,  it  was  the  duty  of  all  the  tribe  to  hunt 
him  down ;  he  became  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 


52  THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

and  his  property  was  divided  between  his  king  and  his  kin. 
Women  could  not  be  outlawed  because  they  were  not 
directly  under  the  protection  of  the  law  in  the  first  place, 
but  under  the  care  of  their  fathers,  husbands,  or  kindred. 
Outlawry  was  also  the  penalty  for  those  crimes  considered 
the  most  heinous. 

Killing  a  man,  however,  was  not  then  esteemed  so  serious 
an  offense  as  now,  and  could  usually  be  atoned  for  by  pay- 
Wergeld  ing  the  Sih  of  the  dead  man  the  amount  of  his 
and  feud  Wergeld,  which  varied  in  value  as  he  was  a  noble, 
freeman,  or  freedman.  If  one  killed  a  slave,  one  simply 
paid  his  master  damages.  This  practice  of  compensation 
largely  replaced  the  older  custom  of  feud  by  which  the  Sih 
of  the  dead  man  tried  to  get  open  revenge  upon  the  slayer 
or  any  other  member  of  his  kinship  group. 

In  general  it  may  be  affirmed  that  all  free  members  of  th-e 
tribe  who  were  not  still  under  paternal  authority  had  equal 
German  law  rights  before  the  law,  except  that  nobles  were 
personal  protected  by  a  larger  Wergeld  and  that  their  oaths 
carried  more  weight  in  court.  The  Germans  had  no  testa- 
mentary law  because  they  made  no  wills.  A  man's  property 
was  inherited  by  his  children  or  other  relations  according 
to  rules  fixed  by  custom.  Their  real-estate  law  was  not  at  all 
complex  because  their  agricultural  life  was  as  yet  so  simple. 
Of  the  law  of  partnership,  sales,  contracts,  and  other  busi- 
ness relations  they  had  still  less  knowledge.  In  short,  their 
law  was  largely  personal.  Each  tribe,  of  course,  had  its  own 
customs  or  laws,  which  differed  considerably  from  those  of 
other  peoples. 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  while  German  law, 
taken  as  a  whole,  was  incomplete,  crude,  and  harsh,  com- 
Germans  pared  to  the  fine  humane  system  which  had 
compared  to  grown  up  in  the  Roman  world,  it  was,  on  the 
other  hand,  much  like  the  law  with  which  the 
early  Roman  farmers  had  been  contented  in  their  little 
settlement  on  the  Tiber.  Indeed,  the  Germans  were  not  so 
unlike  the  people  within  the  Empire  as  they  at  first  sight 
seemed.    The  Greeks  and  Latins  themselves  had  been  pro- 


THE   BARBARIAN  WORLD  53 

duced  a  thousand  or  more  years  before  Christ  by  a  fusion 
between  the  Mediterranean  race  and  invaders  of  the  north- 
ern European  race  speaking  Indo-European  languages,  for 
the  Latin,  Greek,  and  German  tongues  all  belong  to  the 
same  group.  The  future  was  to  show  what  the  invasion  of 
the  Roman  Empire  by  the  Germans  would  produce. 

Already  in  98  a.d.  Tacitus  saw  in  the  Germans  a  greater 
menace  to  Rome  than  the  Samnites,  Carthaginians,  Span- 
iards, or  Gauls  had  been ;  and  he  feared  "German  Germans 
liberty"  more  than  the  Parthian  Kingdom.  The  witWnthe 
Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  (i 61-180  A.D.)  had  to  Empire 
spend  almost  his  entire  reign  away  from  Rome  in  a  hard 
struggle  against  both  the  Parthians  in  the  East  and  German 
tribes,  the  Marcomanni  and  Quadi,  on  the  upper  Danube. 
These  latter,  together  with  the  Sarmatian  lazyges,  who 
were  probably  not  Germans,  had  overrun  the  Roman  prov- 
inces of  Rhsetia,  Noricum,  and  Pannonia,  and  had  reached 
the  Adriatic  Sea.  Marcus  Aurelius  at  last  managed  to  bring 
the  territory  as  far  as  the  Danube  again  under  Roman  con- 
trol, but  in  order  to  replenish  the  wasted  population  of 
Pannonia  he  settled  there  many  thousands  of  the  conquered 
barbarians.  Their  duty  was  to  till  the  soil,  which  they  were 
not  allowed  to  leave,  and  to  defend  it  against  any  further 
invasions  that  their  kinsmen  across  the  river  might  attempt. 
To  such  an  extent  did  the  successors  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
allow  or  compel  the  barbarians  to  settle  within  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  Empire  that  we  are  told  that  a  century  later 
"not  a  province  was  free  from  the  presence  of  the  barbarian 
settler."  Of  these  many  were  Germans,  who  thus  had 
already  begun  to  fuse  with  the  Romans. 

The  ancient  Greeks  had  planted  colonies  along  the 
northern  and  eastern  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea  and  had 
traded  with  the  inland  tribes,  whom  they  called  The  Pontus 
Scythians,  and  whose  country,  the  Pontus  Steppe 
Steppe,  lies  open  to  inroads  from  western  Asia.  Neither 
Alexander  the  Great  nor  the  Romans  had  included  these 
regions  in  their  empires.  But  while  the  Romans  were  occu- 
pied in  keeping  the  Cimbri  and  Teutones  out  of  Italy, 


54         THE  HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Mithridates,  a  handsome  giant  of  Persian  descent  and 
Greek  education,  a  great  athlete  and  linguist,  an  able  orator 
and  general,  but  withal  a  cruel  Oriental  despot,  was  pro- 
tecting the  Greek  cities  of  the  Black  Sea  against  the  north- 
ern barbarians  who  threatened  them,  was  building  up  an 
empire  for  himself  about  the  Black  Sea,  and  was  spreading 
Greek  civilization  through  it.  In  this  respect,  however,  he 
could  make  only  a  beginning,  since  his  empire  included  all 
sorts  of  races,  languages,  and  religions,  and  peoples  in  every 
stage  of  civilization  from  tree-dwellers,  pile-dwellers,  and 
the  pastoral  stage  up.  In  a  single  city  of  his  realm  as  many 
as  seventy  dialects  were  spoken.  His  promising  beginning 
was  soon  terminated  by  wars  with  Rome  which  resulted  in 
his  downfall.  Rome  annexed  some  of  his  possessions  on  the 
southern  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  but  let  the  rest  go,  and  the 
Greek  cities  soon  succumbed  to  barbarian  pressure.  These 
barbarians  were  now  spoken  of  as  Sarmatians  rather  than 
Scythians. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  A.D.  these 
Sarmatians  were  for  the  most  part  driven  out  by  the  Ger- 
man  Goths,  who  migrated  from  their  earlier 
home  on  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea.  The  middle 
of  the  third  century  was  a  period  of  civil  strife  and  mis- 
government  in  the  Roman  Empire,  which  came  near  going 
to  pieces  as  a  result.  The  Goths  took  advantage  of  this  state 
of  affairs  to  cross  the  Danube  and  the  Balkans,  and  to  defeat 
and  kill  the  Emperor  Decius.  They  also  ravaged  the  shores 
of  the  Black  Sea  with  their  fleets,  completely  devastated 
the  Roman  province  of  Bithynia,  and,  passing  through  the 
Dardanelles  into  the  ^Egean  Sea,  wrought  havoc  and  ruin 
along  its  coasts.  Meanwhile,  in  the  West  the  Franks  had 
crossed  the  Rhine  into  Gaul  and  then  into  Spain,  and  other 
Germans  had  invaded  Italy  itself,  while  Moorish  tribes 
made  trouble  in  northwestern  Africa.  Finally  the  barbari- 
ans were  defeated,  but  the  emperors  found  it  necessary  to 
surround  the  city  of  Rome  by  walls  once  more,  and  to 
abandon  Dacia,  a  large  province  on  the  north  side  of  the 
lower  Danube  which  had  been  added  to  the  Empire  at  the 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  55 

beginning  of  the  second  century.  The  Goths  thereupon 
spread  into  this  abandoned  province,  and  henceforth  were 
found  along  the  Danube  as  well  as  to  the  north  of  the  Black 
Sea.  They  divided  into  two  peoples,  the  East  and  West 
Goths,  or  Ostrogoths  and  Visigoths. 

In  the  fourth  century  A.D.  we  see  signs  of  the  conversion 
of  the  Goths  to  Christianity.  Those  in  what  we  call  the 
Crimea  were  represented  by  a  bishop  at  the  Ulfilas  and 
Council  of  Nicaea  in  325.  The  chief  missionary  gjon  of  the 
was  Ulfilas  (311-381),  an  Arian  or  unorthodox  Goths 
Christian  who  worked  among  the  West  Goths  in  Dacia. 
His  ancestors  had  been  carried  off  by  the  Goths,  and  he 
himself  was  "in  heart  and  by  speech  a  Goth."  He  had  his 
troubles,  however,  with  the  heathen  king,  Athanaric,  and 
most  of  his  converts  moved  with  him  into  Roman  territory. 
He  is  famous  for  his  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Gothic 
vernacular,  which  gives  us  our  earliest  example  of  writing 
in  a  Germanic  language.  Three  hundred  years  elapse  before 
we  have  another  specimen.  The  manuscripts  of  Ulfilas's 
Bible  which  have  come  down  to  us  comprise  a  few  chapters 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  a  large  part  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles.  The  story  goes  that  he  refrained  from  translating 
such  books  as  First  and  Second  Kings  and  First  and  Second 
Samuel  on  the  ground  that  the  Goths  were  too  fond  of  fight- 
ing already.  Since  the  Goths  as  yet  had  neither  books  nor 
writing  of  their  own,  he  had  to  invent  an  alphabet,  using 
the  Greek  letters. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  Pontus  Steppe  —  in  other  words, 
the  Russian  plain  to  the  north  of  the  Black  Sea  —  as  lying 
open  to  inroads  from  western  Asia.  We  must  ^j^^  mount- 
now  go  on  to  describe  the  people  who  inhabited  ed  nomads  of 
the  basin  of  the  Caspian  and  Aral  Seas  and  the 
deserts  of  Turkestan.  Here  lived  the  mounted  nomads  of 
Altaian  race.  These  Asiatics  were  of  short  stature,  with 
small  hands  and  feet,  but  strong  bones,  a  comparatively 
long  trunk,  and  a  decided  tendency  to  corpulence.  Incessant 
horseback  riding  made  their  legs  bowed  and  their  gait 
waddling.    Their  faces  were  broad,  especially  their  noses, 


56         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

mouths,  and  chins;  also  their  noses  were  flat,  their  ears  were 
large,  their  eyes  were  oblique  and  slit  like  those  of  a  China- 
man, and  were  dark  and  sunken.  Their  cheek-bones  were 
-prominent,  and  what  hair  they  had  —  for  their  beards  were 
scanty  —  was  coarse,  stiff,  and  black. 

The  nature  of  the  country  accounts  in  large  measure 
for  the  nomadic  life  of  these  Asiatics  and  for  their  never 
Their  eo-  progressing  to  a  higher  stage  of  civilization.  They 
graphical  live  to-day  much  the  same  life  as  two  thousand 
environmen  y^^^j-g  ^^^^  jj^  ^^le  Caspian-Aral  Basin  the  evapo- 
ration exceeds  the  rainfall,  the  two  seas  have  shrunk  to  less 
than  their  original  limits,  and  the  rivers  of  the  region  fail 
to  reach  the  ocean.  The  temperature  varies  from  Il8° 
Fahrenheit  in  the  shade  to  31°  below  zero,  and  the  wind 
that  drives  the  sand  about  in  summer  whirls  the  snows  to 
and  fro  in  winter.  Deserts  of  sand  or  gravel  predominate, 
and  only  a  very  small  fraction  of  the  region  is  fit  for  agri- 
culture. But  in  the  south  the  salt  steppes  afford  a  good 
winter  pasturage,  though  in  summer  they  dry  up  and  are 
uninhabitable  from  lack  of  water.  Far  to  the  north,  how- 
ever, are  well-watered  grass  steppes  on  the  edge  of  Siberia. 
These  provide  abundant  summer  pasture,  but  are  under 
deep  snow  in  winter.  Evidently  the  nomad  must  drive  his 
flocks  and  herds  back  and  forth  each  year,  seeking  his 
winter  camp  in  the  south  when  the  snows  begin  to  force  him 
from  the  northern  grass  steppes,  and  moving  northward 
again  when  summer  heat  has  dried  up  the  luxuriant  and 
nourishing  early  spring  growth  of  the  salt  steppes.  He  natu- 
rally spent  most  of  his  life  on  horseback.  Cattle  could  only 
with  difficulty  endure  the  sort  of  life  just  described,  so  that 
he  chiefly  kept  sheep  and  horses,  and  sometimes  camels. 
He  ate  little  either  of  meat  or  grain  and  vegetables,  but 
lived  mainly  upon  milk  products.  Each  man  kept  a  number 
of  mares,  for  his  favorite  food  and  drink  was  the  nutritious 
kumiz,  or  fermented  mare's  milk.  Horse's  blood  also  ap- 
peared upon  his  restricted  menu. 

When  not  on  horseback,  the  nomads  lived  in  tents,  and 
wandered  together  in  bands  of  a  suitable  size  for  a  single 


THE  BARBARIAN   WORLD  57 

camp  and  grazing  area.     A  number  of  these  camps  to- 
gether formed  a  clan,  and  there  might  be  further    ^,   ,     , ,., 

.  .  .,  ^  r^  •  ^^  Mode  of  life 

union  mto  tribes  and  peoples.  Occasionally  some 
great  conqueror,  called  a  khagan  or  khan,  would  arise  at  the 
head  of  a  vast  horde  made  up  of  various  tribes  and  peoples. 
The  life  of  the  wife  or  wives  of  the  nomad  was  very  hard, 
and  he  was  cruel  to  his  slaves  or  to  the  wretched  communi- 
ties of  subject  serfs  whom  he  forced  to  cultivate  for  him  the 
few  fertile  spots  that  existed  in  the  region  over  which  he 
wandered.  Family  life  was  not  nearly  so  pure  as  among  the 
Germans.  Nor  was  cleanliness  at  all  esteemed.  The  new- 
bom  babe,  it  is  true,  was  washed  daily  in  the  open  air  for 
the  space  of  six  weeks  regardless  of  whether  it  was  summer 
or  winter;  but  these  forty-two  baths  had  to  last  it  for  the 
rest  of  its  life.  The  smoke  in  the  tent,  however,  served  as  a 
disinfectant;  and  the  life  that  the  nomad  led  soon  trained 
him  to  endure  hunger,  thirst,  and  almost  any  hardship.  His 
horses  were  even  tougher  than  himself. 

Had  this  disgusting  race,  which  lacked  any  legal  or 
political  institutions  as  well  as  any  vestiges  of  culture,  re- 
mained in  its  own  unattractive  region,  we  might  ^  standing 
well  pass  it  by.  But  the  nomads  did  not  limit  menace  to 
themselves  to  stealing  one  another's  herds  or 
fighting  among  themselves  for  the  best  pasturage  and  winter 
camping-stations.  They  were  continually  plundering  and 
devastating  the  adjoining  regions,  or  enslaving  the  neigh- 
boring peoples  and  reducing  them,  too,  to  a  low  state  of 
civilization.  On  their  swift  and  hardy  horses  they  could 
cover  hundreds  of  miles  in  a  few  days,  and  either  take  the 
enemy  by  surprise,  or  overwhelm  him  by  the  fury  of  their 
onslaught,  or  evade  him  and  reduce  to  a  wilderness  the 
country  he  was  trying  to  defend.  It  was  as  difficult  to  stand 
against  them  as  to  fly  before  them.  Moreover,  at  intervals 
in  the  course  of  history,  owing  either  to  changes  of  climate 
that  lessened  their  pasturage  and  decimated  their  herds, 
or  to  overpopulation,  or  to  defeat  incurred  in  their  struggles 
among  themselves,  a  great  horde  would  entirely  detach 
itself  from  its  native  habitat  and  sweep  onward  in  a  wild 


58  THE  HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

career  of  conquest,  altering  the  face  of  the  earth  by  its 
depredations,  and  the  map  of  the  world  by  transplanting 
whole  peoples,  whom  the  nomads  either  forced  to  join  them 
or  to  flee  before  them.  They  were  a  menace  to  China,  In- 
dia, and  Persia;  but  we  are  especially  concerned  with  their 
inroads  into  Europe.  Such,  perhaps,  had  been  the  origin  of 
the  Scythians  and  Sarmatians  whom  we  have  already  men- 
tioned ;  such  were  the  Tartar  or  Mongolian  invasions  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  when  most  of  Russia  submitted  to  the 
Great  Khan.  The  Turks,  too,  are  of  this  stock.  Before  the 
Turks  and  Tartars  make  their  conquests,  we  shall  hear  in 
the  earlier  Middle  Ages  of  Bulgars,  Avars,  and  Magyars, 
who,  in  their  first  appearance  at  least,  all  represent  the  same 
sort  of  inroads  from  Asia  into  Europe.  And  such  mounted 
nomads  were  the  people  with  whom  we  have  now  to  deal, 
and  who  about  372  a.d.  burst  like  a  cyclone  into  the  region 
between  the  Volga  and  the  Don  Rivers  and  filled  the  neigh- 
boring Goths  with  unreasoning  terror  and  aversion.  These 
nomads  were  the  Huns. 


THE   BARBARIAN   WORLD  59 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

C^SAR  AND  Tacitus  on  the  Early  Germans. 

Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  vi,  no.  3, 
pp.  2-16. 

A.  Take  full  notes  of  what  Caesar  and  Tacitus  say  on  the  following 
points  and  arrange  your  notes  so  that  those  under  each  point 
will  be  together:  — 

1.  Physical  and  personal  traits. 

2.  Manners  and  morals. 

3.  Economic  conditions. 
•     4.  Social  classes. 

5.  Gods  and  religion. 

6.  Magistrates  and  chiefs. 

7.  Citizenship  and  popular  bodies. 

8.  Administration  of  justice. 

9.  Intertribal  relations. 

B.  What  statements  concerning  the  early  Germans  in  pages  42-52 
of  this  chapter  seem  drawn  from  other  sources  than  Caesar  and 
Tacitus? 

Comparison  of  Germans  and  Romans. 

From  this  and  the  preceding  chapter  find  as  many  points  of  resemblance 
or  of  difference  as  you  can  between  the  life  and  civilization  of  the 
Germans  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  Empire,  and  set  these  points  down 
opposite  each  other  in  parallel  columns. 

German  and  Norse  Mythology. 

C.  M.  Gayley,  Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature  (Boston,  1893),  pp. 

30-34  (pars.  13-14)  and  pp.  366-403  (pars.  177-86). 
K.  Gjerset,  History  of  the  Norwegian  People  (New  York,  191 5),  vol.  I, 

pp.  92-109. 
H.  A.  Guerber,  Myths  of  Northern  Lands  (1895),  any  chapter. 

Early  German  Religion. 
C.  F.  Keary,  The  Vikings  in  Western  Christendom  (1891),  chap.  ii. 

Early  German  Law. 
See  exercise  on  the  Salic  law  at  the  close  of  chap.  vii. 

General  Reading  on  the  Germans. 

Gummere,  Germanic  Origins  (New  York,  1892). 

Ulfilas. 
Article  in  the  Catholic  Encyclopedia. 

The  Mounted  Nomads,  or  Huns. 

T.  Peisker,  The  Asiatic  Background,  in  the  Cambridge  Medieval  History, 
vol.  I,  pp.  323-59- 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   DECLINE   OF   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

About  372  a.d.  the  Roman  Empire  was  not  In  a  condition 
to  enable  it  to  resist  the  oncoming  tide  of  barbarian  inva- 
Whv  did  sion.  It  no  longer  possessed  either  the  superior 
the  Empire  force  neccssary  to  keep  the  invaders  out,  or  the 
civilizing  capacity  requisite  to  absorb  and  ele- 
vate their  barbarism.  Exactly  why  and  how  came  to  pass 
this  decline  of  the  great  Roman  Empire,  which  had  seemed 
to  knit  together  so  satisfactorily  most  of  the  civilized  lands 
of  antiquity,  is  a  problem  not  easy  to  solve,  especially  with 
the  scanty  sources  at  our  disposal.  Numerous  attempts  have 
been  made  to  solve  the  mystery,  and  the  fall  of  Rome  has 
been  variously  attributed  to  mosquitoes  and  malaria,  to 
the  drain  of  precious  metals  to  the  Far  East,  and  to  exhaus- 
tion of  the  soil.  Probably  the  fundamental  reason  was  that 
the  Roman  Empire  was  founded  on  the  ruins  of  states  and 
civilizations  that  had  already  declined,  like  Egypt,  Phoe- 
nicia, Asia  Minor,  Carthage,  and  the  Hellenic  cities  of  the 
Greek  peninsula,  Sicily,  and  southern  Italy.  The  Empire 
was  a  patchwork  of  outworn  nationalities  or  despotisms 
and  of  bygone  cultures,  which  had  not  been  able  to  save 
themselves  from  Rome's  attacks  and  which  had  little  to 
give  to  reinvigorate  the  new  whole.  The  Roman  Empire, 
then,  possessed  little  new  life  of  its  own;  it  was  the  last 
stage  in  the  ancient  history  of  the  Mediterranean  Basin. 

Greece  and  Italy,  the  very  heart  of  the  Empire,  had  shown 
unmistakable  symptoms  of  decay  even  before  the  Roman 
Earlier  Empire,  Strictly  speaking,  had  begun.   Not  only 

Greeks  and  ^^^  ^^^  Hellenes  lost  their  cherished  liberty  and 
Italians  political  independence,  not  only  had  the  repub- 

lican form  of  government  and  popular  assemblies  proved  a 
failure  at  Rome,  but  in  both  Italy  and  Greece  depopulation 
and  alarming  economic  decline  were  painfully  evident  dur- 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  6i 

ing  the  two  centuries  before  the  Christian  era.  Moreover, 
first  the  Greeks  and  then  the  Italians  had  displayed  an 
increasing  distaste  for  military  service  and  an  increasing 
fondness  for  lives  of  ease  and  luxury.  It  is  significant  that 
after  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era  Italy  furnished 
no  more  emperors;  Rome's  rulers  henceforth  came  from  the 
provinces. 

To  her  new  acquisitions  in  the  North  and  West,  Rome, 
as  we  have  seen,  spread  the  benefits  of  classical  civilization. 
This  had  raised  those  provinces  to  a  higher  state  Apparent 
of  culture  than  their  previous  tribal  life,  but  it  ofThTearly 
had  not  led  them  as  yet  to  create  any  new  art  or  Empire 
literature,  or  any  new  industrial  methods  or  political  insti- 
tutions of  their  own.   They  merely  dropped  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  their  previous  ways  and  adopted  to  the  best  of 
their  ability  the  arts  and  letters  and  institutions  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.    This  change,  together  with  the  con- 
tinued prosperity  of  Eastern  lands,  such  as  Egypt  and  Asia 
Minor,  where  there  were  still  plenty  of  inhabitants  and 
wealth,  if  not  any  new  ideas,  made  the  early  Empire  appear 
flourishing  and  successful,  especially  as  peace  prevailed. 

But  in  reality  scarcely  had  the  Romans  achieved  their 
work  of  extending  through  the  western  half  of  their  Empire 
that  classical  culture  which  had  originated  among  ^     •       c 

°      ,  °    rassing  of 

the  gifted  Hellenes,  when  that  classical  culture  the  ancient 
began  to  dry  up  at  the  roots.   In  an  earlier  chap-  and  ifs^dls- 
ter  we  noted  the  city-state  as  the  key  to  classical  tinctive 
civilization  and  described  the  flourishing  urban 
life  of  the  early  Empire.    We  may  now  trace  the  decline 
of  that  civilization  in  connection  with  the  decay  of  the 
ancient  city. 

Perhaps  first  of  all  came  the  decay  of  civic  religion.  Once 
all  inhabitants  of  a  city  had  joined  in  the  same  religious 
beliefs  and  acts  of  worship,  and  the  supreme  reli-  Decay  of 
gious  duty  of  every  citizen  had  been  to  serve  his  ^'^^^  religion 
city.  Now  the  changed  external  conditions  of  life  and  the 
growth  of  philosophy  had  made  educated  men  skeptical 
concerning  the  gods,  the  myths,  the  religious  rites  and  cere- 


62         THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

monies  of  their  forefathers.  Of  the  late  schools  of  Greek 
philosophy  the  Epicureans  had  attacked  religion  as  an  evil 
and  had  advised  each  man  to  search  intelligently  after  his 
own  happiness.  The  opposite  school  of  the  Stoics  made 
some  effort  to  save  the  old  myths  by  warning  men  not  to 
take  these  tales  about  the  gods  too  literally ;  but  they  had 
somewhat  the  same  ideal  of  "the  self-centered  sage"  as  the 
followers  of  Epicurus,  and  thought  that  the  good  and  wise 
man  should  not  be  affected  by  evils  about  him. 

The  Stoics,  however,  laid  stress  on  something  other  than 

selfish  happiness,  and  emphasized,  as  we  have  seen  in  an 

...       earlier  chapter,  the  existence  of  one  law  of  nature 

New  ideals  111  r  n 

of  the  Stoic  to  which  all  men  should  conform.  But  this,  too, 
philosophers  ^^^  contrary  to  civic  religion  and  substituted  for 
narrow  patriotism  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  a  world- 
religion.  Marcus  Aurelius,  Roman  emperor  from  161  to  180 
A.D.  as  well  as  Stoic  philosopher,  turned  his  thoughts  in 
his  famous  Meditations,  not  to  some  particular  city  such  as 
Athens,  called  by  the  poet  "dear  city  of  Cecrops"  after  its 
legendary  founder,  but  to  the  "dear  city  of  Zeus";  that  is, 
to  the  whole  world  about  him.  "All  things  harmonize  with 
me  which  are  in  harmony  with  thee,  O  Universe,"  he  wrote; 
"all  things  are  fruit  to  me  which  thy  seasons  bring,  O  Na- 
ture; from  thee  are  all  things,  in  thee  are  all  things,  unto 
thee  are  all  things."  This  was  a  noble  conception,  but  for 
the  time  being  it  meant  the  death  of  that  city  religion  which 
was  the  basis  of  so  much  in  classical  civilization  and  the 
root  in  especial  of  Greek  and  Roman  patriotism. 

It  is  true  that  the  state  was  now  an  empire,  not  one  city; 
but  after  all  it  had  grown  from  one  city  and  was  now  not 
Failure  of  much  more  than  a  collection  of  cities.  Anyway, 
emperor-        ^^g  worship  of  the  emperor,  though  more  uni- 

worship  as  ^  ,    ^  i-, 

a  state  versal  than  a  local  city  cult,  did  not  prove  an 

reigion  adequate  state  religion.     It  exerted  a  marked 

influence  in  some  respects,  particularly  upon  Roman  art; 
but  in  the  long  run  it  did  not  satisfy  the  religious  inclina- 
tions of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Empire  any  more  than  the 
old  city  worships  now  did. 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  63 

Under  the  Empire  many  Oriental  cults  were  spread 
abroad  both  in  the  East  and  West,  which  exerted  upon 
many  people  an  attraction  greatly  superior  to  g  ,  , 
the  hold  that  the  outworn  formalities  of  the  Oriental 
municipal  worship  had  upon  them.  These  East-  ^^  '^'°"^ 
em  religions  were  not  state  worships.  They  aimed  at  sal- 
vation of  the  individual  rather  than  the  prosperity  of  a 
social  or  political  group,  such  as  the  tribe  or  town.  In  many 
cases  they  were  open  to  any  one,  even  to  slave  as  well  as  to 
foreigner,  instead  of  being  restricted  to  a  limited  number 
of  citizens.  They  offered  to  their  initiates  as  a  compensation 
for  external  ills  a  feeling  of  inner  satisfaction  and  the  hope 
of  a  better  life  after  death.  The  ordinary  civic  religion, 
although  it  stimulated  a  devout  patriotism,  does  not  seem 
to  have  controlled  man's  private  life  very  successfully,  or 
at  least  had  ceased  to  do  so  by  the  time  of  the  Empire.  We 
have  seen  that  there  was  much  sensuality  and  sexual  excess 
in  ancient  society.  Now  there  seems  to  have  been  a  reaction 
against  this ;  men  felt  sinful  and  desired  to  find  some  means 
of  purification  from  their  guilt.  The  Oriental  worships 
offered  men,  upon  the  basis  of  a  revelation  supposedly 
divine  and  authoritative,  a  personal  redeemer  by  whose  aid 
and  by  following  whose  example  and  previous  experience, 
as  recounted  In  some  sacred  legend,  they  too  could,  through 
symbolic  rites  and  sacramental  mysteries  and  acts  of  pen- 
ance, become  purified  from  sin  and  evil,  enjoy  moments  of 
emotional  ecstasy  even  in  this  life,  and  after  death  win  an 
immortal  union  with  a  deity  outside  and  above  our  present 
world.  The  Egyptian  cult  of  Isis  had  its  baptisms  and  fasts, 
its  liturgy  and  prayer-book,  its  well-organized  priesthood 
with  tonsure  and  vestments,  and  its  Mother-Goddess  who 
had  herself  been  through  sufferings  and  who  longed  to 
relieve  suffering  humanity.  In  the  Metamorphoses  of  Apu- 
leius  she  appears  to  the  hero  in  a  miraculous  vision  and 
says,  "  Lo,  Lucius,  I  am  come,  moved  by  thy  supplication, 
I,  nature's  mother,  mistress  of  all  the  elements,  the  first  be- 
gotten offspring  of  the  ages.  ...  I  am  come  in  pity  for 
thy  woes."     Other  widely  disseminated  cults  than  that  of 


64  THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Isis  were  those  of  the  Great  Mother  from  Phrygia,  of  Baal 
from  Syria,  and  of  Mithra  from  Persia. 

Along  with  such  exalted  aims  these  religions  preserved 
many  primitive  rites  and  some  notions  of  a  questionable  or 
Relation  of  ^ven  distinctly  immoral  and  superstitious  char- 
Christianity  acter.  But  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  judge  them 
Oriental  ^^  fairly,  because  most  of  the  information  which 
religions  j^^g  come  to  US  concerning  them  is  from  the  writ- 
ings of  early  Christians,  who  were  bitterly  opposed  to  them 
and  regarded  them  as  indecent  parodies  upon  the  Christian 
faith  invented  by  the  Devil.  And  it  is  evident  that  in  a 
number  of  respects  they  roughly  resembled  Christianity, 
which,  of  course,  was  one  of  the  many  religions  that  spread 
from  the  East  over  the  Roman  world  and  which  for  a  long 
time  had  to  struggle  with  the  others  for  supremacy.  To  its 
rise  we  shall  presently  devote  a  separate  chapter. 

The  spread  of  these  cults  meant  the  break-up  of  civic 

religion.  Their  legends  were  different  from  those  of  classical 

mythology.    In  place  of  Greek  intellectual  free- 

Incompati-  ■'  °-'  ,  *^  ...  ,      . 

bility  of  dom  they  imposed  an  authoritative  revelation. 
reUgion  with  Civic  service  was  replaced  by  mystic  sacraments. 
classical         Affairs  of  the  present  world  were  liable  to  be 

civilization  1111  •  1  1  • 

neglected  and  the  attention  centered  upon  things 
of  the  spirit  or  the  world  to  come.  The  tendency  was  to  re- 
tire to  a  desert  and  live  as  a  hermit  rather  than  go  to  the 
frontier  as  a  soldier  or  rear  a  large  family  of  children.  The 
early  Christians  were  regarded  as  unsocial  and  dangerous 
by  the  people  of  the  ancient  cities  and  by  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment. 

Gradually,  under  the  increasing  pressure  of  the  Oriental 
religions,  philosophy  lost  much  of  its  former  sanity  and 
Philosophy     rational  investigation  of  nature  ceased.  Religious 

and  science     mysticism  was  the  main   interest  of   the  phi- 
tend  toward  .  , 
mysticism       losophy  called  "  Neo-Platonism  "  because  it  pro- 

and  magic  fessed  to  be  based  upon  Plato's  doctrines,  and 
of  which  Plotinus  (about  204-269  A.D.),  born  in  Egypt,  may 
be  regarded  as  the  founder.  The  chief  problem  of  this  phi- 
losophy was  not  the  study  of  nature,  nor  the  conduct  of  man 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  65 

in  this  world,  but  how  the  human  soul  might  return  to  God 
—  a  goal  which  the  Neo-Platonists  often  sought  to  attain  by 
asceticism  or  mortifying  the  flesh,  by  ceremonies  of  purifi- 
cation, and  sometimes  by  magic  and  incantations.  Their 
one  supreme  being,  they  believed,  transcended  all  attempts 
at  description  and  was  outside  and  far  above  the  world  of 
nature,  —  a  transcendent  God.  The  great  Christian  writer, 
Augustine,  in  the  fifth  century,  admits  that  he  was  led  to  a 
more  spiritual  and  monotheistic  idea  of  God  by  reading 
Plotinus.  The  followers  of  Plotinus,  however,  feeling  the 
need  of  mediators  between  man  and  so  lofty  and  distant  a 
God,  or  else  desiring  to  retain  some  of  their  old  religious  be- 
liefs, stated  the  existence  of  a  host  of  intermediate  spiritual 
beings  between  the  supreme  deity  and  the  human  soul,  and 
of  a  multitude  of  daemonic  forces  In  the  stars,  the  air,  and 
nature  generally.  These  mediators  and  demons  could  be 
propitiated  by  sacrifice  and  ceremony  or  coerced  by  magic 
and  Incantations. 

Religion  In  ancient  and  medieval  times  was  the  chief 
inspiration  of  art  and  literature,  and  we  have  seen  that 
classical  art  and  literature  centered  In  the  city,    r-,   r      r 

.  .  ■'       Decline  of 

Hence,  when  the  city-state  and  civic  religion  art  and 
declined,  art  and  literature  deteriorated  too.  '*^^''^^"^^ 
Moreover,  the  efforts  of  men  who  were  neither  Greeks  nor 
Latins  by  birth  to  write  in  those  tongues  resulted  in  a  nat- 
ural falling-ofT  in  purity  of  style  and  diction,  while  they 
failed  to  introduce  much  new  subject-matter.  Public  taste, 
too,  had  degenerated,  and  where  Athens  had  supplied  large 
audiences  for  the  tragedies  of  ^schylus  and  Euripides,  the 
people  of  the  Roman  Empire  preferred  pantomime,  as  the 
people  of  to-day  prefer  moving  pictures.  Seneca's  tragedies 
in  the  first  century  of  our  era  were  probably  written  to  be 
read  rather  than  acted,  and  after  him  no  dramas  are  extant 
from  the  time  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Here  we  have  a  good 
illustration  of  how  the  decline  of  religion  affected  literature. 
Many  had  attended  the  performance  of  a  drama  by  ^schy- 
lus,  just  as  many  listen  to  a  sermon  to-day,  not  because  they 
especially  enjoyed  or  even  thoroughly  comprehended  it,  but 


66         THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

because  it  was  part  of  a  religious  festival  which  every  one 
was  expected  to  attend.  By  the  time  of  the  Empire  they 
felt  under  no  such  obligation,  and,  as  far  as  amusement  was 
concerned,  preferred  the  exciting  combats  of  the  arena  or 
races  in  the  circus.  Whatever  the  reasons,  what  is  called 
"classicism"  in  literature  and  art  had  for  the  most  part  dis- 
appeared before  the  end  of  the  second  century.  There  are, 
it  is  true,  several  writers  —  from  the  African,  Apuleius,  a 
vivid  romancer  and  mystic  with  a  style  of  unfailing  gusto 
in  the  second  century,  to  the  sober  historian  and  soldier, 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  in  the  fourth  century  —  whose 
tone  and  content  interest  intensely  the  student  of  history; 
but  students  of  the  classics  usually  regard  such  writers  as  of 
minor  importance  from  their  standpoint.  Such  authors  are 
seldom  read  in  courses  given  by  Latin  and  Greek  depart- 
ments, and  the  great  period  of  Latin  literature  is  considered 
to  end  with  Juvenal  and  Tacitus.  Building  upon  a  large  and 
magnificent  scale  continued  as  late  as  Constantine  in  the 
fourth  century,  for  the  imperial  idea  was  more  of  an  inspira- 
tion to  art  than  to  letters,  and  dying  antiquity  reared  im- 
pressive monuments  in  its  last  moments.  But  we  see  that 
the  Hellenic  genius  in  sculpture  is  gone,  when  we  compare, 
among  the  friezes  and  medallions  that  adorn  the  Arch  of 
Constantine,  the  crude  carvings  executed  by  contemporary 
artists  with  the  sculptures  which  were  transferred  to  this 
structure  from  older  buildings. 

The  material  prosperity,  indicated  by  the  costly  build- 
ings in  the  municipalities  of  the  early  Empire,  in  time 
P   .  ^j  ceased.  As  early  as  Trajan  (98-117  a.d.)  we  find 

municipal  the  central  imperial  government  sending  its 
prosperity  agents  to  manage  the  affairs  of  towns  whose 
finances  were  in  a  bad  state.  This  imperial  interference  kept 
growing  until  the  cities  had  little  self-government  left.  By 
the  fourth  century  the  chief  function  of  the  curiales,  or 
members  of  the  governing  class  of  the  town,  had  come  to  be 
the  collection  of  taxes,  for  which  the  emperor  held  them 
personally  responsible.  But  the  towns  had  so  decreased  in 
prosperity,  or  else  the  taxes  had  so  increased,  that  it  was 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  67 

very  hard  for  the  curiales  to  squeeze  the  required  amount 
out  of  their  fellow-townsmen  and  the  landholders  of  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood.  In  this  case  they  had  to  make  up 
any  deficit  from  their  own  pockets.  This  tended  to  ruin  a 
class  of  men  who  had  once  been  the  richest  in  town,  and  they 
often  tried  to  escape  from  their  office,  but  instead  the  em- 
peror made  it  hereditary. 

This  decline  in  prosperity  of  the  cities  was  due  in  part  to 
the  civil  wars  and  barbarian  inroads  of  the  third  century, 
but  also  to  the  fact  that  the  prosperity  of  the  Decline  of 
ancient  city  was  founded  largely  upon  slave  deo-ease^hi 
labor,  and  that  with  the  cessation  of  Roman  population 
conquests  it  became  increasingly  difficult  to  obtain  slaves. 
Moreover,  many  slaves  were  given  their  freedom  as  the 
Empire  progressed.  This  should  have  produced  a  large 
working  middle  class,  one  would  think,  which  would  have 
revived  the  languishing  industry  and  commerce  of  the 
Empire.  But  unfortunately  the  population  of  the  Empire 
as  a  whole,  as  in  the  cases  of  Greece  and  Italy  earlier,  began 
to  decrease  seriously.  A  great  plague  which  swept  over  the 
Empire  during  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  reduced  the 
population  terribly  for  the  time  being,  and  afterwards  the 
ancient  stocks  apparently  did  not  possess  enough  vitality 
to  repair  its  ravages.  It  was  perhaps  this  simple  lack  of  men 
and  life  and  energy  that  did  most  to  terminate  the  Roman 
Empire  and  classical  civilization.  Unless  it  could  be  stopped, 
it  meant,  of  course,  that  many  towns  would  become  depopu- 
lated and  that  municipal  life  would  give  way  to  a  scattered 
agricultural  society.  This  was  what  finally  happened  after 
the  barbarian  invasions. 

A  clear  indication  of  the  depopulation  of  the  Empire  is 
seen  in  the  repeated  settlement,  from  the  reign  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  on,  of  large  numbers  of  barbarians  Settlement  of 
within  the  Roman  frontiers.  These  barbarians  ^^Jf^'the 
were  given  waste  lands  or  depopulated  areas  to  Empire 
till  and  formed  a  half-subject  peasant  class.  Naturally  they 
were  not  admitted  to  the  towns  in  the  first  instance,  for  they 
knew  nothing  of  business  and  industry  and  were  unfitted  to 


68  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

participate  in  city  life.  But  neither  could  their  children  go 
to  the  city  to  learn  a  trade,  since  the  imperial  government 
forced  them  to  till  the  soil  as  their  fathers  had  done.  Thus 
the  cities  went  on  declining,  the  barbarian  settlers  remained 
ignorant  peasants  and  came  little  into  contact  with  classical 
civilization,  and  no  new  middle  class  developed. 

Rome's  early  conquests  had  been  largely  due  to  the  dense 
population  of  Italy  at  that  time,  which  furnished  her  with 
Decline  in  Plenty  of  soldiers;  for  men  had  to  fight  to  exist, 
military  and  it  was  natural  for  them  to  overflow  the 
^^^"  crowded  peninsula  and  conquer  other  territories. 

But  then,  as  we  have  seen,  came  depopulation  and  a  decline 
of  military  spirit  in  Italy.  The  provinces,  however,  for  a 
time  supphed  soldiers  enough.  But  in  the  later  centuries  of 
the  Empire  with  the  general  falling-off  in  population  came  a 
decline  in  fighting  spirit  on  the  part  of  the  provincials,  and 
finally  the  emperors  had  to  recruit  their  armies  mainly  from 
among  the  Germans. 

With  the  ancient  city  doomed,  with  classical  religion  and 
art  and  literature  dying  out,  with  the  old  races  disappearing 
Discouraged  and  barbarians  taking  their  places  both  as  peas- 
g°"of 'J}^^"  ants  and  soldiers,  there  still  remained  the  Roman 
later  Empire  imperial  system  and  law  to  hold  the  weakened 
Empire  together;  and  for  a  long  time  the  imperial  govern- 
ment struggled  persistently  on  and  succeeded  in  sta\ang  ofT 
the  day  of  destruction.  But  the  members  of  the  governing 
class  sometimes  felt  the  almost  hopeless  nature  of  their 
task,  and  it  is  with  a  heartfelt  sigh  of  relief  that  we  find 
some  of  them  laying  their  burdens  down. 

Dio  Cassius,  who  wrote  his  history  of  Rome  in  the  third 
century,  belonged  to  the  senatorial  class  and  held  many 
administrative  positions  under  the  dynasty  of  the  Severl. 
In  the  last  book  of  his  history  he  excuses  himself  for  not 
giving  a  detailed  account  of  the  recent  reign  of  Alexander 
Severus,  "for  the  reason  that  for  a  long  time  I  did  not  so- 
journ at  Rome.  After  going  from  Asia  to  BIthynIa  I  fell 
sick,  and  from  there  I  hurried  to  my  duties  as  head  of 
Africa.  On  returning  to  Italy  I  was  almost  immediately  sent 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  69 

to  govern  in  Dalmatia,  and  from  there  Into  Upper  Pannonia. 

After  that  I  came  back  to  Rome  and  on  reaching  Campania 

at  once  set  out  for  home."  Then,  after  narrating  the  murder 

of  Ulpian,  the  famous  jurist,  by  the  Praetorian  Guards  of 

whom  he  was  prefect,  and  the  Persian  conquest  of  the 

Parthian  Kingdom  and  subsequent  war  upon  Rome,  DIo 

continues:  "The  troops  are  so  distinguished  by  wantonness 

and  arrogance  and   freedom  from   reproof  that  those  in 

Mesopotamia  dared  to  kill  their  commander.  .  .  .  And  the 

praetorians  found  fault  with  me  before  Ulpian  because  I 

ruled  the  soldiers  In  Pannonia  with  a  strong  hand ;  and  they 

demanded  my  surrender  for  fear  that  some  one  might  compel 

them  to  submit  to  a  regime  similar  to  that  of  the  Pannonian 

troops.  Alexander,  however,  paid  no  attention  to  them,  but 

promoted  me  in  various  ways,  appointing  me  to  be  consul 

for  the  second  time  as  his  colleague,  and  taking  upon  himself 

personally  the  responsibility  of  meeting  the  expenditures  of 

my  office.    As  the  malcontents  evinced  displeasure  at  this, 

he  became  afraid  that  they  might  kill  me.  If  they  saw  me  in 

the  insignia  of  my  office,  and  he  bade  me  spend  the  period 

of  my  consulship  in  Italy  somewhere   outside  of    Rome. 

Later,  however,  I  came  both  to  Rome  and  to  Campania  to 

visit  him.  After  spending  a  few  days  in  his  company,  during 

which  the  soldiers  saw  me  without  offering  to  do  me  any 

harm,  I  started  for  home,  being  released  on  account  of  the 

trouble  with  my  feet.    So  I  expect  to  spend  all  the  rest  of 

my  life  In  my  own  country,  as  the  Divine  Presence  revealed 

to  me  most  clearly  at  the  time  I  was  in  Bithynla.  Once  In  a 

dream  there  I  thought  I  saw  myself  commanded  by  It  to 

write  at  the  close  of  my  work  the  following  verses :  — 

" '  Hector  was  led  of  Zeus  far  out  of  the  range  of  the  missiles, 

Out  of  the  dust  and  the  slaying  of  men,  out  of  blood  and  of  uproar.'" 

We  meet  the  same  attitude  a  century  later  in  another 
work  by  a  man  of  senatorial  rank,  but  this  time  by  Julius 
Firmlcus  Matemus,  a  pleader  in  the  law  courts  rather  than 
a  commander  of  the  legions.  But  as  Dio  Casslus  wrote  a 
history  to  divert  his  mind  from  Its  other  cares,  so  Firmlcus 
Maternus  composed  an  astrological  work  for  his  friend 


70         THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Lollianus  or  Mavortius,  who  was  still  higher  up  than  he  in 
the  governmental  hierarchy.  Firmicus  states  that  he  had 
formerly  "resisted  with  unbending  confidence  and  firmness " 
factious  and  wicked  and  avaricious  men  "who  by  the  terror 
of  lawsuits  seemed  formidable  to  the  unfortunate";  and 
that  "with  liberal  mind,  despising  forensic  gains,  to  men  in 
trouble  ...  I  displayed  a  pure  and  faithful  defense  in  the 
courts  of  law."  But  by  this  upright  conduct  he  had  incurred 
much  enmity  and  danger,  and  he  is  glad  at  last  to  retire 
from  this  hard  world,  where  Socrates  and  Plato  suffered 
while  Alcibiades  and  Sulla  prospered,  and  from  the  sordid 
atmosphere  of  law  courts  and  forum,  in  order  to  spend  his 
leisure  with  the  divine  men  of  old  of  Egypt  and  Babylon 
and  to  purify  his  spirit  by  contemplation  of  the  everlasting 
stars  and  of  the  supreme  God  who  works  through  them. 

During  the  civil  strife  and  barbarian  inroads  of  the  third 
century  the  Empire  for  a  time  fell  into  anarchy,  but  before 
Diocletian's  the  ccntury  was  over,  the  imperial  government 
savrtVe°  seemed  more  strongly  established  than  ever. 
Empire  This   was   largely   due    to    the    reorganization 

effected  by  Diocletian  (284-305  A.D.).  He  increased  the 
power  of  the  emperor,  making  him  an  absolute  ruler  in 
every  respect,  whom  his  courtiers  and  subjects  were  to  treat 
as  a  god  and  whose  court  was  characterized  by  most  elab- 
orate ceremonial  and  etiquette.  His  predecessor  Aurelian 
had  already  closely  associated  the  cult  of  the  emperor  with 
the  worship  of  the  Unconquered  Sun,  whose  earthly  repre- 
sentative the  emperor  now  asserted  himself  to  be.  Diocle- 
tian also  endeavored  to  establish  a  regular  and  unbroken 
succession  to  the  throne,  in  order  to  avoid  civil  strife. 
Further,  he  divided  the  Empire  into  many  more  provinces 
than  before,  greatly  increased  the  number  of  governors  and 
officials,  to  all  of  whom  high-sounding  titles  were  given,  put 
the  army  under  leaders  separate  from  the  provincial  gov- 
ernors, and  established  an  elaborate  system  of  espionage 
over  all  his  subordinates.  He  also  tried  to  regulate  economic 
conditions  and  issued  an  edict  to  keep  prices  down.  From 
this  time  forth,  indeed,  the  imperial  government  itself  took 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  71 

charge  of  an  increasing  number  of  state  industries.  Whether 
the  State  killed  private  business  by  so  much  paternal  inter- 
ference, or  whether  the  State  interfered  because  private 
business  was  dying  already,  is  a  problem  that  our  sources 
do  not  suffice  to  solve. 

The  chief  flaw  in  Diocletian's  "system,"  as  it  has  been 
called,  was  that  he  subdivided  functions  too  much,  and 
especially  that  he  divided  the  imperial  office  Dgfg^ts  of 
itself  between  two  Augusti  and  two  Caesars,  the  the  Diode- 
latter  of  whom  were  to  succeed  the  former  when 
their  terms  of  ten  years  expired.  But  here  again  he  perhaps 
did  the  best  that  could  be  done  and  was  forced  to  accept  an 
inevitable  tendency  of  the  Empire  to  split  into  two  parts, 
the  East  and  the  West,  if  not  to  go  to  pieces  entirely.  Ap- 
parently a  ruler  with  all  the  attributes  and  trappings  and 
sanctity  of  the  imperial  office  was  now  needed  simultane- 
ously in  East  and  West  to  control  the  situation.  During  a 
period  of  nearly  two  hundred  years  after  Diocletian's  sys- 
tem first  went  into  effect,  there  were  less  than  thirty  years 
when  there  was  not  more  than  one  emperor.  But  the  elabo- 
rate officialdom  introduced  by  Diocletian  was  very  expen- 
sive to  maintain.  Heavy  taxation  was  necessary  to  support 
two  Augusti  and  two  Caesars,  each  with  a  splendid  court  and 
a  large  army,  the  four  praetorian  prefects,  the  vicarii  or 
heads  of  the  ten  or  a  dozen  dioceses  into  which  the  Empire 
was  divided,  and  the  hundred-odd  consular es  and  prcEsides, 
who,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  prefects  and  vicars, 
ruled  the  smaller  provinces  which  formed  subdivisions  of 
the  dioceses,  and  all  of  whom  drew  large  salaries  and  kept 
numerous  clerks  and  assistants.  All  this  made  a  burden 
almost  too  much  for  the  diminished  population  of  the 
Empire  to  bear. 

Constantine,  who  became  the  sole  emperor  for  a  time  in 
the  first  half  of  the  fourth  century,  took  two  very  impor- 
tant steps.    He  rebuilt  and  fortified  the  city  of    The  epoch- 
Byzantium,   situated  where   Europe  and  Asia    ^^g^ol 
meet  at  the  entrance  to  the  Black  Sea,  and  hence-    Constantine 
forth  named  Constantinople  in  his  honor,  and  he  made  it 


-^2         THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  center  of  his  Empire.  Thus  Italy  and  western  Europe 
were  relegated  to  a  secondary  place  in  the  later  Roman 
Empire.  In  the  second  place,  Constantine  first  raised  the 
Christians  to  equal  privileges  with  other  religions  in  the 
Empire,  then  favored  them,  and  finally  on  his  deathbed 
was  himself  baptized.  Just  what  his  motives  were  and  how 
sincere  was  his  conversion  has  been  disputed  by  historians, 
but  his  act  was  in  a  sense  a  confession  of  weakness.  The 
emperors  had  tried.various  expedients  —  such  as  Aurelian's 
association  of  himself  with  the  Unconquercd  Sun  —  to 
make  the  worship  of  the  emperor  more  of  a  living  force 
which  would  sustain  their  government  and  insure  them 
popular  support.  Now  the  emperor  adopted  an  unworldly 
religion  which  his  predecessors  had  striven  to  extirpate,  and 
thereby  recognized  that  Christianity  had  or  was  to  become 
a  power  superior  to  the  Roman  State  or  to  classical  civiliza- 
tion. Constantine's  successors  in  the  imperial  office  were 
almost  all  Christians,  and  Christianity  became  the  state 
religion.  Presently  no  other  form  of  worship  was  allowed. 
A  collection  of  the  laws  issued  by  Constantine  and  his 
successors  has  come  to  us,  named  the  Theodosian  Code  after 
Decline  of  ^^s  Compiler,  the  Christian  emperor,  Theodosius 
the  Empire     H,  in  the  fifth  ccntury.    This  mass  of  imperial 

as  revealed       ,      .  ,      .  i       i  rr  r     i 

in  the  Theo-  legislation  revcals  the  efforts  of  the  government 
dosian  Code  ^^  check  the  decline  of  the  Empire,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  adoption  of  policies  which  probably  had  the 
unfortunate  result  of  hastening  that  decline.  Some  of  the 
laws  conflict  with  others;  the  policy  of  the  emperors  evi- 
dently fluctuated  and  perhaps  the  conditions  with  which 
they  had  to  deal  changed  too.  For  instance,  at  one  time 
private  individuals  are  allowed  to  quarry  marble;  at  an- 
other time  the  right  is  reserved  to  the  State.  Some  sweeping 
commands  probably  were  never  executed  thoroughly ;  other 
laws  are  merely  the  sanctioning  of  already  existing  condi- 
tions. But  on  the  whole  the  reader  of  the  laws  gets  the 
impression  that  things  are  going  very  badly  in  the  Roman 
world,  and  that  all  the  scolding  and  threats  of  the  emperors 
cannot  prevent  it.    In  364  they  have  to  order  that  no  new 


DECLINE  OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  73 

buildings  shall  be  constructed  at  Rome  until  the  ruins  of 
the  ancient  buildings  have  been  repaired ;  the  year  following 
they  forbid  their  subordinates  to  despoil  out-of-the-way 
towns  of  their  marbles  and  columns  in  order  to  adorn  this 
or  that  metropolis.  In  389  private  landowners  who  tap  the 
public  aqueducts  to  irrigate  their  farms  are  threatened  with 
confiscation  of  their  land.  Some  workers  are  forced  by  pen- 
alties to  pursue  the  same  trades  as  their  fathers;  others  are 
encouraged  in  their  callings  by  immunities  and  exemption 
from  taxes.  Skilled  labor  seems  to  be  getting  scarce.  It  is 
also  difficult  for  the  government  to  procure  enough  ships  to 
bring  provisions  to  the  populaces  of  Rome  and  Constanti- 
nople, or  the  workmen  necessary  for  a  number  of  other 
public  enterprises.  The  toilers  in  the  state  mines  and  quar- 
ries often  run  away.  So  difficult  has  it  become  to  keep  the 
governing  class  in  the  municipalities  at  their  disagreeable 
task  of  tax-collecting  that  evildoers  are  sometimes  forced  to 
join  a  curia  by  way  of  punishment,  while  five  gold  pieces  are 
offered  as  a  reward  to  any  one  who  drags  a  runaway  decurion 
back  to  his  office.  Life  in  the  country  has  become  as  burden- 
some as  in  the  town,  since  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Constan- 
tine  a  law  shows  us  that  the  tenants  or  coloni  are  now  bound 
to  the  soil  like  the  later  medieval  serfs ;  that  the  landowner 
on  whose  estate  a  colonus  belonging  to  another  is  discovered 
must  not  only  restore  the  fugitive  to  his  rightful  master,  but 
pay  damages  for  the  time  that  the  said  colonus  has  worked 
for  him;  and  that  coloni  who  "are  meditating  flight"  may 
be  put  in  chains  and  "compelled  by  such  condemnation  as  a 
slave  deserves  to  perform  the  tasks  that  a  freeman  should." 
The  burden  of  taxation  became  so  great,  and  the  petty 
tyranny  exercised  by  the  host  of  officials  whom  the  bureau- 
cracy of  Diocletian  and  his  successors  necessitated  became 
in  many  cases  so  oppressive,  that  at  about  the  time  the 
Huns  were  appearing  on  the  scene  the  emperors  established 
in  the  cities  new  officials  called  defensores,  or  "protectors," 
who  were  to  defend  their  subjects  from  their  own  other 
officials.  Numerous  laws  were  also  passed  to  protect  the 
peasants  against  oppressive  exactions.  Finally  we  may  note 


-y 


74  THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

that  the  Codex  Theodosianus  marks  a  decline  in  the  Roman 
law  compared  to  the  writings  of  the  jurists  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries,  to  which  it  is  inferior  both  in  language  and 
in  thought,  both  as  literature  and  as  law. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Trace  on  the  map  the  itinerary  of  Die  Cassius  as  described  in  pp.  68-69. 

Bring  together  the  facts  about  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Constantine  and 
their  respective  reigns  which  are  scattered  through  this  chapter  (use 
index). 

The  Spread  of  Oriental  Religions. 

H.  S.  Jones,  The  Roman  Empire,  pp.  212-20. 

T.  M.  Lindsay,  Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  90-94. 

F.  Cumont,  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism  (Chicago,  191 1),  any 

chapter. 
F.  Cumont,  The  Mysteries  of  Mithra  (Chicago,  1910),  any  chapter. 

The  System  of  Diocletian. 

H.  S.  Jones,  The  Roman  Empire,  pp.  262-73. 

Taxation  in  the  Fourth  Century. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  34-41. 

Decay  of  the  Middle  Class;  Aggrandizement  of  the  Aristocracy. 
Dill,  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of  the  Western  Empire  (second 
edition  revised),  pp.  245-81. 

Causes  of  the  Fall  of  the  Western  Empire. 

T.  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,  vol.  li,  book  ill,  chap,  ix,  sees.  1-7 
(pp.  538-613  in  the  second  edition). 

Source  Readings. 

There  is  more  than  one  English  translation  of  the  Meditations  or 
Thoughts  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Dio  Cassius  may  be  read  in  Foster's 
recent  translation;  but  Firmicus  and  the  Codex  Theodosianus  have  not 
been  translated.  The  Notitia  Dignitatum,  an  ofificial  list  of  all  the  posts 
in  the  administrative  system  of  the  late  Empire,  is  translated  in  vol. 
II,  no.  4,  of  Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  translation  includes  but  one  of  the  many  interesting  illustrations 
with  which  the  Latin  text  is  adorned  and  which  may  be  examined  in 
Seeck's  edition  (Berlin,  1876).  The  last  book  of  The  Metamorphoses 
of  Apuleius  (translated  by  E.  H.  Butler,  2  vols.,  Oxford,  1 910)  is  rich 
in  information  concerning  the  spread  of  Oriental  cults. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   BARBARIAN    INVASIONS:   378-5 II    A.D. 

At  the  time  the  Huns  invaded  Europe  the  Roman 
emperors  were  Valentinlan  I  (364-375)  and  his  brother 
Valens  (364-378).  Their  father,  a  peasant  rope-  Valentinian, 
seller  in  Pannonia,  had  risen  from  the  ranks  in    the  last 

stronff 

the  legions  to  the  command  first  in  Africa  and  emperor  in 
then  in  Britain.  Valentinian  by  his  military  ^^^  ^^^^ 
ability  went  on  to  win  the  imperial  throne,  and  then  made 
his  less  able  brother  his  associate  in  the  East.  Valentinian 
found  the  western  half  of  the  Empire  in  great  disorder  and 
invaded  in  many  places  by  barbarians.  Most  of  his  reign 
he  spent  in  expelling  the  Alamanni  and  other  Germans  from 
Gaul  and  in  strengthening  the  Rhine  frontier.  Meanwhile 
he  dispatched  Theodosius,  a  trusted  lieutenant,  first  north  \^' 
into  Britain  and  then  south  to  Africa  to  restore  order.  The 
last  year  of  his  life  Valentinian  recovered  the  provinces  of 
Pannonia  and  Moesia,  situated  along  the  Danube,  from 
neighboring  barbarians  who  had  been  devastating  them. 
With  stern  face  and  imposing  presence,  often  angry  and 
sometimes  cruel,  Valentinian  was  the  last  strong  emperor 
that  the  West  was  to  have.  Even  he  had  all  he  could 
do  to  keep  the  Germans  out  of  the  Empire,  and  wherever 
he  was  not  personally  present  misgovemment  prevailed 
among  his  corrupt  and  oppressive  subordinates.  Hence- 
forth, with  the  advent  of  the  Huns,  conditions  were  sure 
to  grow  steadily  worse. 

The  first  appearance  of  the  Huns  struck  the  Germans 
with  repugnance  and  terror.  No  one  seemed  able  to  stand 
before  them.  They  rapidly  conquered  the  Alani,  .^j^^  battle  of 
who  were  probably  not  Germans,  and  most  of  Adrianople, 
the  East  Goths,  who  were  Germanic;  then  they  ^'' 
pressed  on  westward.  Most  of  the  West  Goths  decided  to 
take  refuge  from  the  dreaded  foe  within  the  Roman  Empire. 


76         THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

They  asked  permission  to  settle  south  of  the  Danube,  prom- 
ising not  to  plunder  and  to  aid  the  emperor  in  defending 
the  frontier.  They  were  allowed  to  cross  the  river,  but  then 
the  imperial  officials  failed  to  supply  them  with  food  until 
they  could  grow  crops  for  themselves,  and  in  other  ways 
ill-treated  them.  In  consequence  they  began  to  ravage  the 
country-side  and  before  long  crossed  the  Balkan  Mountains 
and  entered  Thrace,  leaving  the  Danube  frontier  behind 
them  open  to  any  one  who  cared  to  follow.  Valens,  who 
already  had  experienced  quite  enough  trouble  for  one  reign 
from  would-be  assassins  and  usurpers,  conspiracies  and 
rebellions,  and  wars  with  Persia  in  the  Far  East,  was  now 
called  upon  to  face  this  new  danger.  Before  he  arrived, 
there  had  been  considerable  indecisive  fighting  with  the 
Goths,  whose  numbers  by  now  had  been  further  swelled 
by  bands  of  Alani  and  Huns,  who  now,  however,  fought  as 
their  allies  and  to  whose  hideous  appearance  and  coarse 
manners  the  Goths  seem  to  have  quickly  reconciled  them- 
selves. With  the  arrival  of  Valens  a  pitched  battle  was 
fought,  in  which  the  emperor  himself,  his  leading  generals, 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  army  were  slain.  The  Goths, 
however,  were  unable  to  take  either  the  city  of  Adrianople, 
near  which  the  defeat  had  occurred,  or  the  capital,  Constan- 
tinople, against  which  they  next  marched.  But  their  vic- 
tory left  them  permanently  within  the  Empire,  where  in  the 
Balkan  peninsula  they  and  other  barbarians  who  sooner  or 
later  followed  in  behind  them  formed  a  wedge  separating 
the  eastern  and  western  halves  of  the  Empire.  Therefore, 
it  has  long  been  the  custom  to  date  the  beginning  of  success- 
ful barbarian  invasions  or  migrations  of  the  peoples  from 
the  battle  of  Adrianople  in  378. 

Gratian,  a  boy  in  his  teens,  had  become  emperor  in  the 
West  on  the  death  of  his  father,  Valentinian ;  on  the  death 
Reigns  of  of  his  uncle,  Valens,  he  named  as  his  associate  in 
Theodosius  the  East  Theodosius,  son  of  the  general  who  had 
the  Great  fought  for  his  father.  Huns,  Ostrogoths,  and 
Alani  came  westward,  but  Gratian  satisfied  them  for  the 
time  by  abandoning  to  them  Upper  Moesia  and  Pannonia, 


THE  BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  77 

provinces  which  his  father  had  just  recovered.  Meanwhile 
Theodosius  prevented  the  victorious  Visigoths  from  pene- 
trating farther  into  the  Empire  or  from  devastating  on  too 
vast  a  scale  by  fighting  with  them  now  and  then,  in  which 
encounters  he  was  sometimes  worsted ;  but  more  by  allow- 
ing them  to  occupy  under  their  own  rulers  and  law  as  much 
of  Lower  Moesia  and  Thrace  as  they  wished,  by  paying 
them  an  annual  tribute,  and  by  employing  many  of  them 
as  his  own  soldiers.  He  was  called  "  the  friend  of  the  Goths." 
Indeed,  it  now  became  not  at  all  unusual  for  the  emperors 
to  employ  Huns  as  well  as  Germans  in  their  armies ;  Gratian 
favored  the  Alani  among  his  troops.  These  barbarians  did 
not  merely  enlist  as  individuals;  they  were  hired  in  bodies 
and  fought  in  their  native  organizations  under  their  own 
kings.  Theodosius'  two  chief  generals  were  Arbogast,  a 
Frank,  and  Stilicho,  a  Vandal ;  and  the  imperial  family  even 
intermarried  with  such  barbarian  chieftains. 

Barbarian  troops  were  not  so  favored  by  the  civilian 
populace  as  they  were  by  the  emperors,  and  especially  not 
when  such  troops  were  quartered  upon  citizens.    The  mas- 
A  famous  incident  will  illustrate  this  and  some    Thessalon- 
other  important  points.    Theodosius  had  placed    'ca;  Theo- 

.  .      rr^.  .       .  dosius  and 

a  German  garrison  m  Thessalomca,  one  of  the  Ambrose 
largest  cities  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  the  same  as  the 
modern  Saloniki.  When  the  barbarian  leader  imprisoned  a 
charioteer  who  was  a  great  favorite  in  the  races  of  the  circus, 
the  mob  of  the  city  rose  in  rebellion  and  killed  the  comman- 
dant. The  news  of  this  riot  threw  Theodosius  into  a  terrible 
rage  and  he  allowed  his  soldiers  to  slaughter  some  seven 
thousand  of  the  populace.  Yet  he  had  often  shown  mercy 
to  defeated  enemies,  and  was  an  orthodox  Christian  who 
did  so  much  for  the  Church  as  to  win  the  appellation,  "the 
Great."  On  this  occasion  the  Church  was  to  show  that  it 
dared  reprove  even  an  emperor  when  he  sinned.  Ambrose, 
Archbishop  of  Milan,  warned  Theodosius  that  he  should 
refuse  to  perform  the  sacrament  of  the  mass  in  his  presence 
until  he  atoned  for  his  crime,  and  the  emperor  soon  did 
penance  before  him.   Thus  the  story  of  Thessalonica  illus- 


78         THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

trates  the  relations  between  bishop  and  emperor,  Church 
and  State,  as  well  as  the  attitude  of  Greek  citizens  to  Ger- 
man soldiers  and  the  attitude  of  the  em.peror  to  them  both. 
We  also  see  the  populace  of  an  ancient  city  become  mere 
spectators  at  chariot  races  instead  of  themselves  serving  in 
the  army.  The  emperor  favored  his  barbaric  soldiery  above 
such  degenerate  Hellenes  and  Romans,  but  before  the  bishop 
even  Theodosius  bent  the  knee.  He  scented  the  future. 
While  the  ancient  city  and  Its  life  passed  away,  these  two 
forces  were  to  survive ;  namely,  barbarian  soldiers  and  the 
Christian  Church.  But  the  chief  bishop  of  the  latter  was 
to  be  at  Rome  instead  of  at  Milan. 

During  the  reign  of  Theodosius  In  the  East,  things  went 
badly  in  the  West.  Gratlan  came  to  neglect  his  state  du- 
Confusion  ties  and  then  was  assassinated.  For  some  years 
in  the  West  thereafter  his  younger  brother,  Valentlnian  II, 
ruled  in  Italy,  but  Gaul  and  Britain  were  controlled  by  a 
usurper.  Finally  Theodosius  found  time  to  come  West  and 
settle  the  matter  In  Valentlnlan's  favor,  while  his  Franklsh 
general,  Arbogast,  drove  out  the  German  Invaders  who  had 
once  more  been  crossing  the  Rhine.  But  not  long  after 
Theodosius  had  returned  to  Constantinople,  Valentlnian  II 
was  strangled  and  a  new  emperor,  Eugenius,  was  set  up  by 
Arbogast,  who  had  turned  traitor.  Theodosius  came  West 
again  with  his  other  barbarian  lieutenant,  Stillcho;  Visigoths 
under  their  leader  Alaric  fought  with  him  against  Franks 
and  Alamanni  In  the  service  of  Eugenius;  Eugenius  and 
Arbogast  were  defeated  and  killed,  but  Theodosius  himself 
died  at  Milan  in  395. 

Theodosius  left  two  sons,  Arcadius,  aged  seventeen,  and 
Honorlus,  aged  eleven,  to  succeed  him  In  the  East  and  West 
Arcadius  and  respectively.  Both  were  incompetent  weaklings. 
Honorius  Stillcho  remained  in  the  West  as  Honorlus' 
guardian  and  tried  also  to  Interfere  In  the  East.  When 
Gratlan  had  made  Theodosius  his  colleague  in  the  East,  he 
had  allotted  most  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  to  him;  Stillcho 
held  that  this  territory  should  now  revert  to  the  western  half. 
The  court  of  Arcadius  was  hostile  to  the  Vandal  general, 


THE  BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  79 

however,  and  he  also  had  enemies  in  the  West.  Barbarians 
within  and  without  the  Empire  were  now  everywhere  re- 
belHng,  invading,  and  devastating.  In  northwestern  Africa 
a  Moorish  prince  tried  to  rule  independently,  and  farther 
east  Roman  Africa  was  subject  to  Libyan  inroads.  The 
Huns  not  only  appeared  in  Thrace,  but,  bursting  through 
the  gates  of  the  Caucasus  near  the  Caspian  Sea,  penetrated 
to  Syria  and  Asia  Minor.  Asia  Minor  was  also  being  devas- 
tated by  some  native  tribes,  the  Isaurians.  In  Constanti- 
nople the  Gothic  troops,  on  their  return  from  the  West 
after  the  death  of  Theodosius,  murdered  the  Roman  regent, 
but  were  later  massacred  or  driven  from  the  city.  Stilicho 
had  to  give  the  Vandals  and  Alani  lands  just  northeast  of 
Italy  in  Noricum;  presently  he  had  to  defeat  a  host  of  them 
who  invaded  Italy  together  with  Ostrogoths  and  the  Quadi; 
they  then  withdrew  from  Italy  and  wandered  about  over 
Gaul.  Burgundians  and  Alamanni  also  established  them- 
selves west  of  the  Rhine.  The  troops  in  Britain  set  up  an 
emperor  of  their  own  named  Constantine,  who  crossed 
over  to  Gaul  and  left  Britain  henceforth  to  defend  itself  if 
it  could.  Soon  both  this  usurper  and  the  Alani,  Vandals, 
and  Suevi  had  forced  the  passes  of  the  Pyrenees  and  entered 
Spain. 

But  most  dangerous  of  all  the  barbarians  at  this  time 
were  the  Visigoths  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  under  their 
leader  Alaric.     After  the  death  of  Theodosius,    c^i-  u 

'     Stilicho 

Alaric  had  failed  to  get  the  generalship  which  versus 
Theodosius  had  promised  for  his  assistance  in  the  ^"^ 
West,  and  the  imperial  government  also  stopped  paying 
the  Goths  tribute.  Thereupon  the  Goths  ravaged  the  vicin- 
ity of  Constantinople  and  then  went  south  into  Macedonia 
and  Epirus.  Stilicho  had  come  out  against  them  with  troops 
that  the  death  of  Theodosius  had  left  in  Italy,  but  the 
government  at  Constantinople  told  him  to  return  to  Italy 
and  to  send  their  troops  back  to  Constantinople,  where,  as 
we  have  seen,  they  revolted  against  the  government. 
Meanwhile  Alaric  captured  Athens,  Corinth,  Argos,  and 
Sparta,  —  all   famous  Grecian   cities.    Since  the   Eastern 


8o         THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

emperor  still  did  nothing,  Stilicho  came  from  Italy  again, 
but  contented  himself  with  making  a  treaty  with  Alaric, 
and  in  consequence  was  now  declared  a  public  enemy  by 
the  government  at  Constantinople.  Alaric  went  on  devas- 
tating until  Arcadius  gave  him  the  generalship  and  money 
he  desired,  and  perhaps  persuaded  him  to  direct  his  future 
ravages  toward  Italy  rather  than  Greece  or  Constantinople. 
That  at  least  is  what  he  did.  In  both  402  and  403  he  in- 
vaded Italy  and  fought  with  Stilicho;  in  408  he  came  again, 
but  was  bought  off  by  four  thousand  pounds  of  gold. 

In  408,  too,  Arcadius  died,  leaving  a  seven-year-old  son, 
Theodosius  II,  but  the  rule  of  the  East  was  already  really 
Improved  in  the  hands  of  the  praetorian  prefect,  Anthemius, 
the  Eastern  who  govcmcd  wcll  from  404  to  414,  repelling  the 
Empire  Runs  and  other  invaders  and  mending  the  fron- 

tiers on  the  Danube  and  in  Illyria.  After  the  battle  of  Adri- 
anople  it  had  rather  seemed  as  if  the  eastern  half  of  the 
Empire  would  fall  first,  but  the  barbarians  had  been  unable 
to  take  the  strong  city  of  Constantinople  and  the  eastern 
half  of  the  Empire  seems  to  have  been  better  able  to  buy 
them  off.    They  turned  instead,  therefore,  against  Rome. 

In  the  same  year,  408,  in  the  West  the  foolish  Honorius 
executed  Stilicho  on  a  charge  of  high  treason.  As  a  conse- 
Sack  of  quence  Alaric  again  entered  Italy  and  was  joined 

Akric,  ^  ir^  great  numbers  both  by  the  imperial  German 
410  A.D.  troops,  who  were  discontented  with  Stilicho's 

fate,  and  by  runaway  slaves.  Honorius  took  refuge  in 
Ravenna,  the  home  henceforth  of  the  Western  imperial 
court.  It  was  a  city  close  to  the  Adriatic  coast  just  north  of 
the  Apennines,  where,  protected  by  surrounding  swamps 
and  with  access  to  the  sea  and  so  to  Constantinople,  one 
could  watch  the  main  roads  leading  to  the  Alps  and  to 
Rome.  Alaric  did  not  try  to  take  Ravenna,  but  marched  on 
Rome.  Constantinople,  open  to  the  sea,  could  not  easily  be 
cut  off  from  supplies;  but  Rome,  dependent  on  Africa  for 
grain  and  located  many  miles  from  the  coast,  could  be 
starved  out  by  blockading  the  Tiber.  Since  Honorius  sent 
no  aid,  the  senate  had  to  pay  Alaric  a  huge  sum  to  raise  the 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  8i 

siege.  He  lingered  in  Italy,  however,  and,  when  after  long 
negotiations  Honorius  failed  to  come  to  terms  with  him,  he 
marched  on  Rome  again  and  forced  the  senate  to  select 
a  new  emperor,  Attalus.  Attalus,  however,  was  unable  to 
secure  Africa  and  its  grain  supply,  so  Alaric  deposed  him. 
His  negotiations  with  Honorius  were  again  a  failure  and  he 
marched  upon  Rome  a  third  time.  The  siege  led  to  famine 
as  before,  and  one  night  a  city  gate  was  treacherously  opened 
to  the  besiegers.  For  three  days  Alaric's  army  plundered 
the  great  metropolis ;  then  departed  with  their  spoil  for  the 
south  of  Italy,  whence  they  intended  to  embark  for  the 
wheat-fields  of  Sicily  and  Africa.  A  storm,  however,  de- 
stroyed their  fleet,  and  before  the  year  410  was  over,  Alaric 
died.  Slaves  turned  a  river  from  its  bed,  buried  the  dead 
monarch  there,  restored  the  waters  to  their  course,  and  then 
were  executed,  that  none  but  German  warriors  might  know 
the  secret  of  the  grave  of  the  Goth  who  was  the  first,  since 
the  Gauls  had  burned  it  just  eight  centuries  before,  to  sack 
the  city  that  had  so  long  ruled  the  world. 

The  Visigoths,  under  Ataulf,  Alaric's  successor,  roamed 
about  Italy  for  a  while  longer,  but  in  412  entered  Gaul. 
Here  Ataulf  helped  Constantius,  one  of  Hono-  Further 
rius'  generals,  by  defeating  a  usurper  whom  the  ofThe  West 
Franks,  Burgundians,  and  Alani  had  set  up;  but  Goths 
then  he  was  unable  to  come  to  terms  with  Honorius  and  so 
set  up  Attalus  again  as  emperor.  It  is  remarkable  how  even 
the  barbarians  felt  that  some  one  must  be  emperor  and  kept 
putting  up  their  own  candidates.  Constantius  soon  cut  off 
Ataulf's  supplies  and  forced  him  to  retreat  to  Spain,  where 
at  Barcelona  one  of  his  own  followers  assassinated  him.  The 
Goths  then  tried  to  cross  from  Spain  to  Africa,  but  the  same 
misfortune  befell  their  fleet  as  in  southern  Italy.  They 
therefore  made  peace  with  Honorius,  were  provided  with 
grain,  and  proceeded  to  reconquer  much  of  Spain  from  the 
Vandals,  Alani,  and  Suevi,  —  who  had  recently  overrun  it. 
For  this  service  they  were  rewarded  with  lands  in  south- 
western Gaul  with  Toulouse  as  their  capital  and  what 
amounted  to  an  independent  kingdom.     About  the  same 


82  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

time  the  Burgundians  established  a  kingdom  in  territory 
granted  to  them  on  the  Rhone. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  pause  for  a  paragraph  to  con- 
sider the  period  of  invasions  from  a  woman's  experience, 
Galla  especially  since  the  ladies  of  the  imperial  family 

Placidia  j^j-g  frequently  mentioned  in  the  pages  of  the 

Greek  historians  of  this  time.  Galla  Placidia,  the  sister  of 
Honorius,  had  a  career  that  was  both  influential  and  full  of 
adventure.  She  was  at  Rome  when  Alaric  first  besieged  it, 
and  she  agreed  with  the  senate  at  that  time  in  executing 
Stilicho's  widow  on  the  charge  of  conspiracy  with  Alaric. 
When  Alaric  set  up  Attalus  as  anti-emperor,  he  kept  Galla 
with  him  as  a  hostage,  and  his  successor  Ataulf  carried  her 
off  to  Gaul,  where  in  414  at  Narbonne  he  married  her.  Their 
son  died  in  infancy  and  his  father  was  killed  soon  after.  His 
first  successor,  who  reigned  only  a  week,  humiliated  the 
widowed  queen  by  making  her  walk  before  his  horse  for 
twelve  miles.  The  next  year,  when  the  Goths  made  their 
peace  with  Honorius,  she  was  restored  to  her  brother's  court. 
He  forced  her  to  marry  his  general,  Constantius,  who  be- 
came his  colleague  in  421.  This  Constantius  III  died  that 
same  year,  however,  and  Placidia  was  again  left  a  widow 
with  a  young  son  Valentinlan  and  a  daughter  Honoria.  For 
a  time  she  seemed  to  overshadow  her  weak  brother  Hono- 
rius, but  in  423  she  and  her  children  were  banished  to 
Constantinople.  Honorius  died  before  the  year  was  out, 
however,  and  Theodosius  II  sent  his  aunt,  Placidia,  and 
cousin,  Valentinian  III,  back  to  Italy  with  an  army  to  secure 
them  the  throne  against  a  rival  whom  their  enemies  had 
set  up.  Placidia  ruled  for  her  son  until  he  came  of  age.  Even 
then  he  proved  of  little  account,  like  his  cousin  at  Con- 
stantinople, whose  learned  and  orthodox  and  ascetic  court 
was  dominated  either  by  his  wife  or  his  sister,  although  he 
has  perpetuated  his  name  in  the  Theodosian  Code.  In  437 
Valentinian  married  Theodosius'  daughter.  Galla  Placidia, 
and  her  nephew  Theodosius,  died  in  450,  five  years  before 
the  death  of  Valentinian.  Her  mausoleum  at  Ravenna, 
though  small,  is  a  notable  example  of  early  Christian  archi- 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  83 

tecture.  It  is  in  the  shape  of  a  Latin  cross  with  a  low  tower 
rising  over  the  crossing.  Within  this  tower  is  a  dome  cov- 
ered, Hke  the  arched  ceilings  of  the  arms  of  the  cross,  with 
beautiful  mosaics  in  blue  and  gold.  In  the  three  short  arms 
rest  the  empty  sarcophagi  of  the  emperors,  Constantius 
III  and  Valentinian  III,  and  the  empress,  Galla  Placidia. 

Meanwhile  the  barbarians  had  been  continuing  their 
invasions.  The  Vandals,  who  remained  in  Spain  after  the 
West  Goths  had  returned  to  Gaul,  moved  south-  ^.^^ 
ward  and  by  425  were  attacking  the  African  Vandals 
coast.  In  429  they  began  a  wholesale  invasion 
of  Roman  North  Africa  under  their  new  king,  Gaiseric,  who 
was  to  have  a  long  reign  until  477.  A  civil  war  between 
Boniface,  Count  of  Africa,  and  the  court  at  Ravenna 
afforded  them  a  good  opening,  Boniface  and  Ravenna  soon 
reunited  against  them  and  an  army  was  also  sent  from 
Constantinople,  but  to  no  avail.  The  Vandals,  however, 
found  the  taking  of  walled  towns  slow  work,  especially  as 
they  were  accustomed  to  fight  on  horseback;  and  in  435 
they  made  a  peace  by  which  they  were  to  hold  Mauretania 
and  part  of  Numidia  as  tributary  allies  of  Rome.  But  the 
Vandals  had  by  this  time  built  up  a  navy  of  small,  swift 
vessels  which  soon  gained  the  Balearic  Islands,  Sardinia, 
and  part  of  Sicily,  and  committed  acts  of  piracy  all  over 
the  Mediterranean.  Thus  the  Empire  became  everywhere 
infested  with  barbarians,  by  sea  as  well  as  by  land.  In 
439  Gaiseric  pounced  unexpectedly  upon  Carthage.  A  fleet 
which  the  Eastern  emperor  sent  to  the  rescue  accomplished 
little,  and  in  442  the  Western  emperor  came  to  terms  with 
the  Vandal  and  recognized  his  complete  independence. 
Gaiseric,  however,  dated  the  beginning  of  his  reign  and  also 
of  the  legal  year  from  the  day  when  he  captured  Carthage. 
When  Valentinian  III  was  assassinated  in  455,  Gaiseric 
sailed  to  Italy,  took  Rome  without  resistance,  sacked  it  for 
two  weeks,  and  carried  off  the  imperial  widow  and  her  two 
daughters. 

In  Gaul  during  the  reign  of  Valentinian  III  the  chief 
representative  of  the  Empire  was  Aetius,  a  statesman  and 


84         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

general  of  Roman  birth,  but  who  had  a  great  capacity 
for  enhsting  Huns  in  his  service,  perhaps  because  he  had 
Aetius  and  eadier  spent  some  time  among  them  as  a  hos- 
the  Huns  tage.  He  prevented  the  Visigoths  in  southwestern 
Gaul  and  the  Franks  in  the  northeastern  part  from  increas- 
ing their  conquests,  and  conducted  an  aggressive  campaign 
against  the  barbarians  in  Rhaetia  and  Noricum.  Aetius  had 
at  first  opposed  the  accession  of  Placidia  and  her  son,  and 
although  he  had  been  forgiven  and  received  into  their  serv- 
ice, she  seems  to  have  still  distrusted  him.  His  command 
in  Gaul  was  now  given  to  Boniface,  whom  the  Vandals  had 
by  this  time  driven  out  of  Africa,  and  who  had  sided  with 
Placidia  of  old  against  Honorius  and  sent  her  money  when 
she  was  in  exile  at  Constantinople,  although  of  late  he,  too, 
had  been  for  a  time  in  rebellion.  But  Boniface  soon  died, 
and  Aetius,  who  had  taken  refuge  among  the  Huns,  came 
back  with  an  army  of  them  and  forced  Placidia  to  restore 
him  to  power.  He  then  continued  to  make  his  power  felt  in 
Gaul,  reducing  the  strength  of  the  Burgundians  by  crush- 
ing defeats  and  keeping  the  West  Goths  within  some 
bounds.  He  was  unable,  however,  to  help  the  inhabitants  of 
Britain  against  the  Picts  and  Scots  who,  they  piteously 
complained,  were  driving  them  into  the  sea. 

For  some  time  the  Huns  had  been  receiving  tribute  from 
the  Empire  as  well  as  serving  in  Aetius'  armies  as  mercena- 

,    .,  ries.  They  also  of  late  had  been  consolidating  their 

Attila  •', ,     .,  ,,  ...  ,      *=    . 

power  and  buildmg  up  a  great  mihtary  despotism 

over  all  tribes  and  races  to  the  north  of  the  Danube  and  the 
Black  Sea.  At  its  head  was  Attila,  a  typical  Hun  in  appear- 
ance and  destitute  of  education  and  culture,  though  pos- 
sessed of  abundant  energy  and  cunning.  He  had  succeeded 
to  the  throne  in  433  with  his  brother,  whom  he  killed  in  444. 
During  the  decade  from  440  to  450  the  Huns  made  the 
Eastern  Empire  no  end  of  trouble,  devastating  from  the 
Danube  almost  to  the  walls  of  Constantinople  and  forcing 
Theodosius  II  to  triple  the  tribute  paid  them.  They  took 
scores  of  towns  and  forts  as  far  south  as  Thermopylae,  and 
demanded  that  a  strip  of  land  five  days'  journey  in  breadth 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  85 

be  left  waste  to  the  south  of  the  Danube.  In  450  the  new 
emperor  at  Constantinople,  Marcian,  refused  to  pay  the 
tribute,  but  the  next  year  Attila,  instead  of  making  war 
upon  Marcian,  began  his  first  onslaught  upon  the  Western 
Empire  and  led  a  huge  host  westward  into  Gaul.  Aetius 
now  had  to  fight  against  the  Huns  instead  of  having  them 
as  his  soldiers,  but  he  was  joined  by  Theodoric,  King  of 
the  West  Goths,  against  whom  he  had  often  contended 
in  the  past.  Orleans,  situated  on  the  northernmost  bend 
of  the  Loire,  is  a  strategic  point  whose  possessor  can  enter 
almost  any  section  of  Gaul  or  France.  Theodoric  and  Aetius, 
coming  from  southwest  and  southeast,  reached  it  before  the 
Huns,  who  advanced  from  Metz  which  they  had  just  sacked. 
Attila  withdrew  eastward  again  and  a  few  miles  from 
Troyes  was  fought  the  great  battle  of  the  Catalaunian 
Fields,  sometimes  called  Chalons.  It  was  indecisive,  but  at 
least  a  limit  had  been  set  to  Attila's  hitherto  unbroken  series 
of  victories.  Moreover,  he  continued  to  retreat,  and  the 
following  year  (452)  he  decided  to  invade  Italy  where  there 
were  no  Goths  to  oppose  him.  He  ravaged  the  north,  sack- 
ing such  cities  as  Pavia  and  Milan,  but  then  was  met  by 
an  embassy  of  three  persons  from  the  emperor  and  senate 
at  Rome,  and  soon  afterwards  withdrew  northward  once 
more.  One  of  the  ambassadors  was  Pope  Leo  I.  The  next 
year  Attila  died  and  his  empire  went  rapidly  to  pieces. 

Sensational  events  followed  one  another  fast  at  this  time. 
In  454,  Valentinian  III,  with  his  own  sword,  killed  Aetius, 
much  as  his  father,  Honorius,  had  ordered  the    End  of  the 
death  of  Stilicho  in  his  day.   In  455,  Valentinian    Empire  in 
in  his  turn  was  publicly  assassinated,  and  no  one    ^^e  West 
punished  his  slayers.   In  the  same  year  occurred  the  sack 
of  Rome  by  the  Vandals  already  mentioned.    Meanwhile 
Britain  began  to  suffer  from  new  invaders  —  marauding 
bands  of  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons  from  the  coasts  of  Ger- 
many and  Denmark  —  who  were  gradually  to  conquer  and 
occupy  most  of  England.    With  the  murder  of  Valentinian 
the  dynasty  of  Theodosius  the  Great  ceased  to  rule,  and  in 
the  West  emperors  were  put  up  and  pulled  down  with  con- 


86         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

fusing  rapidity.  The  real  power  was  in  the  hands  of  Ricimer, 
a  man  of  German  descent,  who  seems  to  have  resolved  not 
to  share  the  fate  of  Stilicho  and  Aetius,  and  hence  killed  his 
emperors  first.  Finally,  however,  he  himself  died  a  natural 
death  in  472.  In  the  East  the  emperors  maintained  them- 
selves more  successfully  against  the  leaders  of  the  soldiery. 
It  is  true  that  when  the  able  emperor,  Marcian,  died  in  457, 
a  barbarian  named  Aspar  succeeded  in  making  emperor  his 
steward,  Leo;  but  Leo  proved  too  strong  for  Aspar,  whom 
he  had  killed  in  471,  and  Leo  handed  on  the  crown  in  474 
to  his  son-in-law,  Zeno,  an  Isaurian  from  Asia  Minor  who 
reigned  until  491.  Constantinople  also  demonstrated  its 
superiority  by  twice  nominating  rulers  for  the  West.  But 
Nepos,  the  second  of  these,  was  not  acceptable  to  the  bar- 
barian mercenaries,  who  drove  him  out  of  Italy  in  475. 
Their  leader  Orestes  is  then  said  to  have  made  an  emperor 
of  his  handsome  fourteen-year-old  son,  who  bore  the  aus- 
picious and  historic  name,  Romulus.  In  any  case,  in  476  the 
soldiers  turned  against  Orestes,  who  had  not  rewarded  them 
with  the  grants  of  land  they  desired,  and  he  was  overthrown 
by  another  barbarian,  Odoacer,  Odoacer  was  willing  to 
admit  a  vague  sort  of  overlordship  by  the  Eastern  emperor 
and  to  receive  such  titles  as  "  patrician  "  from  him ;  the  sen- 
ate and  consuls  and  much  of  the  administrative  system 
introduced  by  Diocletian  still  went  on  in  Italy.  But  the 
emperor  at  Constantinople  had  practically  no  authority  in 
the  West.  Britain,  Gaul,  Spain,  and  North  Africa  had 
already  passed  quite  out  from  his  control,  and  Italy  now 
became  to  all  intents  and  purposes  an  independent  king- 
dom. From  476  to  800  there  was  no  other  Roman  emperor 
than  the  one  reigning  at  Constantinople.  Since  Constanti- 
nople was  not  Rome,  nor  its  inhabitants  in  any  true  sense 
Romans,  —  though  they  so  called  themselves,  —  it  is  legiti- 
mate to  speak  of  the  Roman  Empire  as  now  at  an  end. 

It  is  true  that  the  Roman  law  and  governmental  system 
and  for  a  time  the  use  of  Latin  as  the  official  language  con- 
tinued at  Constantinople.  But  it  will  be  clearer  henceforth 
to  speak  of  this  half  or  less  of  what  had  once  been  the 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  87 

great  Roman  Empire  by  a  distinctive  name,  and  to  call  it 
the  "Eastern"  or  "Greek"  or  "Byzantine  Em-  The  Eastern, 
pire."  The  last  adjective,  which  comes  from  By-  Byzantine 
zantium,  the  former  name  for  Constantinople,  and  Empire 
is  especially  applied  to  the  art  and  literature  of  this  Empire 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  is  the  most  distinctive.  For  we 
have  already  spoken  of  the  Eastern  Empire  before  476,  and 
the  adjective  "Greek"  would  not  distinguish  the  culture 
from  that  of  earlier  Greece.  The  expression  "Later  Roman 
Empire"  has  been  used  of  this  survival  of  Roman  rule  in 
the  East,  but  is  a  confusing  phrase,  since  such  expressions 
as  "the  early  Empire"  and  "the  later  Empire"  are  used  of 
the  Roman  Empire  before  476  to  distinguish  its  early  period 
of  peace  and  prosperity  from  the  later  centuries  of  decline 
and  invasion.  We  shall  therefore  henceforth  speak  of  the 
government  at  Constantinople  as  the  "Byzantine  Empire." 

The  Balkan  peninsula  much  of  the  time  was  hardly  more 
under  the  control  of  the  Byzantine  emperor  than  was 
western  Europe.  The  East  Goths  or  Ostrogoths  The  East 
were  now  the  chief  disturbing  element  there,  the*^ Balkans 
although  Bulgars,  Huns,  and  Slavs  also  made  and  in  Italy 
trouble  at  times.  Various  lands  were  assigned  to  the  Goths 
and  they  devastated  many  others.  When  the  walls  of 
Constantinople  were  damaged  by  an  earthquake,  they 
would  have  broken  into  the  city  but  for  the  emperor's 
Isaurians,  and  they  vainly  attempted  to  cross  over  into 
Asia  Minor.  At  last,  in  488,  the  emperor  persuaded  Theo- 
doric,  who  by  this  time  had  become  king  of  all  the  East 
Goths,  to  march  against  Odoacer,  and  Constantinople  was 
delivered  from  them  as  it  had  been  eighty  years  before  from 
the  West  Goths  and  twenty-eight  years  before  from  Attila. 
Other  barbarians,  however,  soon  took  the  place  of  the 
Ostrogoths  in  the  Balkan  peninsula.  It  required  four  or  five 
years  for  Theodoric  to  conquer  Italy.  He  got  rid  of  Odoacer, 
who  had  endured  a  siege  of  three  years  behind  the  walls  of 
Ravenna,  only  by  promising  to  divide  the  rule  of  Italy  with 
him  and  then  murdering  him  at  a  friendly  banquet. 

Last  in  our  chronological  and  narrative  survey  of  the 


88  THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

period  of  invasions,  beginning  with  the  advent  of  the  Huns 
Expansion  and  the  battle  of  Adrianople,  we  have  to  note  the 
Franks  expansion  of  the  Prankish  people  to  the  death 

into  Gaul  of  Clovis  in  5 1 1 .  There  were  two  branches  of  the 
Franks,  the  SaHans  dwelHng  along  the  North  Sea  and  the 
Ripuarians  who  lived  along  the  Rhine.  Both  had  expanded 
across  the  Roman  frontier  even  before  the  battle  of  Adrian- 
ople, but  had  been  defeated.  The  Ripuarians  were  driven 
back  across  the  river,  while  the  Salians  were  allowed  to 
remain  as  allies  of  the  Empire  in  the  extreme  northeast  of 
Gaul.  By  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  they  ceased  to 
recognize  Rome's  authority,  and  the  Ripuarians,  too,  came 
west  of  the  Rhine  once  more.  Aetius  checked  the  advance  of 
the  Salians  for  a  time,  but  they  soon  had  spread  as  far 
south  as  the  Somme  River,  and  made  Tournai  their  capital. 
The  Ripuarians  gradually  wrenched  from  the  Empire  the 
important  cities  of  Cologne,  Bonn,  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Juliers, 
Treves,  and  their  surrounding  country. 

South  of  the  Ripuarians  on  the  Rhine  came  the  Thurin- 
gians  and  then  the  Alamanni,  who  occupied  Alsace,  the 
Political  region  between  the  Vosges  Mountains  and  the 
of  Gau?  alt  Rhine,  and  extended  eastward  through  the  Black 
this  time  Forest  to  the  Lake  of  Constance.  Farther  south, 
in  the  upper  Saone  and  Rhone  Valleys  and  in  Savoy  on  the 
west  slopes  of  the  Alps,  were  the  Burgundians.  What  the 
French  call  "/e  massif  central,'"  an  elevated  and  barren 
region  whose  eastern  boundary  is  formed  by  the  Cevennes 
Mountains,  occupies  a  considerable  portion  of  south-central 
France  and  separates  both  southeastern  from  southwestern 
France  and  the  Mediterranean  littoral  from  the  interior. 
The  Vi-sigoths  had  at  first  been  west  of  this  central  plateau, 
but  had  now  also  expanded  south  of  it  and  occupied  most  of 
the  Mediterranean  coast  region.  To  the  north  their  kingdom 
reached  the  Loire.  The  remainder  of  Gaul,  between  the 
Loire  and  Somme  Rivers,  had  not  yet  been  conquered  by 
the  German  Invaders.  A  certain  Syagrlus  had  inherited  it 
in  464  from  his  father  ^gidius,  a  lieutenant  of  the  Ro- 
man emperor  at  that  time,  and  was  known  as  the  "Roman 


loniitufle     "West     2 


2"     Longitude      East       fRim      Greenwich       i" 


90         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

King  of  Soissons,"  where  he  had  his  capital  rather  than  at 
Paris. 

In  486  Syagrius  was  defeated  —  and  later  secretly  put  to 
death  —  by  the  Salian  Franks  under  the  lead  of  Clovis  (481- 
Conquests  511),  a  name  equivalent  to  the  modem  Louis, 
Franks  un-  "^'ho  then  gradually  took  the  walled  towns  of  the 
der  Clovis  region  until  his  dominion  reached  the  Loire.  This 
was  for  Clovis  but  the  beginning  of  a  career  of  conquest. 
He  brought  the  Thuringians  under  his  sway;  he  drove  the 
Alamanni  out  of  Alsace  and  up  the  Rhine  into  the  Rhaetian 
Alps;  he  defeated  the  Burgundians.  In  507  he  killed  with 
his  own  hand  the  king  of  the  West  Goths  and  forced  that 
people  back  into  Spain  except  for  a  strip  of  land  extending 
south  of  the  central  plateau  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the, Alps. 
Indeed,  of  this  the  West  Goths  in  Spain  kept  only  Septi- 
mania,  which  extended  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  city  of 
Nimes,  while  Provence,  which  extended  from  the  Alps  to 
the  city  of  Aries,  was  added  to  Italy  by  Theodoric  the 
Ostrogoth,  who  had  come  to  its  relief.  Clovis  murdered  the 
other  kings  among  the  Salian  Franks  and  was  also  accepted 
by  the  Ripuarians  as  their  sole  ruler.  At  his  death  he  ruled 
all  Gaul  except  the  Mediterranean  coast  and  Rhone  Valley, 
and  by  536  his  sons  had  added  the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy 
and  Provence  to  the  Prankish  possessions. 

As  one  contemplates  all  the  usurpations  and  assassina- 
tions, all  the  war  and  destruction  of  the  confused  period  of 
General  over  a  century's  duration,  of  which  only  a  few 

and  effects  leading  facts  have  been  listed  in  this  chapter  and 
barbarian  °^  which  our  original  sources  do  not  tell  a  tenth 
invasions  part,  one  almost  wonders,  not  merely  that  the 
declining  Empire  struggled  on  in  the  West  as  long  as  it  did 
and  that  at  Constantinople  it  was  to  continue  its  course  for 
several  more  centuries,  but  that  any  peasants  remained  alive 
after  so  much  devastation,  that  any  fields  were  in  cultiva- 
tion, that  any  cities  were  still  in  existence.  But  the  number 
of  invaders  in  any  one  expedition  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  very  large  and  the  invading  barbarians  usually  acted 
without  system  or  policy.   When  forced  to  leave  one  place, 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  91 

they  went  to  another,  but  even  their  leaders  seem  seldom  to 
have  had  any  settled  plans,  and  least  of  all  any  intention  of 
destroying  the  Roman  Empire.  Two  writers  of  the  time  tell 
of  men  who  prefer  to  flee  to  the  barbarians  and  live  under 
their  rule  rather  than  endure  the  misery  and  oppression 
which  is  their  lot  within  the  Empire;  but  the  German  chief- 
tains had  no  objection  to  receiving  offices  and  titles  from 
the  emperor  or  lands  within  the  Roman  frontiers.  They 
wanted  grain  and  gold,  or  lands  to  live  on  and  a  chance  to 
fight  frequently.  They  fought  as  readily  and  fiercely  with 
one  another  as  with  the  imperial  armies,  and  were  willing 
to  fight  for  the  Empire  if  they  were  well  paid.  A  skillful 
imperial  diplomat  by  a  not  too  great  expenditure  could 
play  them  off  against  one  another  with  success  for  a  long 
time.  Moreover,  while  the  invaders  ravaged  the  country- 
side easily  enough,  they  found  it  hard  to  besiege  or  storm 
the  walled  towns.  When  they  did  take  one,  they  soon  passed 
on  with  their  plunder,  since  it  was  some  time  before  they 
reconciled  themselves  to  city  life.  We  are  told  that  the  dis- 
tricts through  which  the  Alani,  Suevi,  and  Vandals  swept 
on  their  way  across  Gaul  to  Spain  were  prosperous  again 
within  a  generation.  But  unfortunately  there  were  parts  of 
the  Empire  to  which  invading  armies  did  not  leave  that 
length  of  time  for  recovery,  and  what  one  section  suffered 
in  life  and  property  the  rest  of  the  Empire  had  to  make  up 
for  in  part  by  increased  taxes. 

Whatever  the  actual  amount  of  damage  that  can  be 
directly  charged  up  to  the  invaders,  it  is  certain  that  the 
decline  of  ancient  civilization  went  on  apace  and  Continued 
that  the  age  was  one  of  great  misery  for  the  anTsocM 
Roman  world.  Lawlessness  and  brigandage  were  decline 
a  natural  result  of  the  invasions  and  disorder.   Tombs  were 
robbed,  parents  sold  their  children  into  slavery,  slaves  ran 
away  from  their  masters  and  were  probably  guilty  of  worse 
acts  of  rapine  and  cruelty  than  the  barbarians.    In  458  the 
legislation  of  the  Emperor  Majorian  tells  the  same  story 
as  the  earlier  Theodosian  Code,  of  things  going  wrong  gen- 
erally, of  oppression  and  corruption  by  officials,  of  wretched- 


92  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ness  of  the  people.  To  check  depopulation  Majorian  forbids 
women  to  become  nuns  before  forty  and  commands  childless 
widows  to  remarry  within  five  years  or  forfeit  half  their 
property.  The  burden  of  taxation  is  revealed  when  the  em- 
peror cancels  arrears  of  tribute  that  are  eleven  years  over- 
due but  feels  obliged  to  increase  the  land  tax  for  the  future. 
The  only  class  in  society  who  remained  at  all  prosperous 
were  the  wealthy  aristocrats,  the  great  landowners,  who  had 
enough  influence  with  the  government  to  secure  themselves 
from  oppression  or  even  to  oppress  others  with  impunity, 
whose  large  estates  only  a  large  band  of  invaders  could  ven- 
ture to  attack,  and  whose  retinue  of  servile  tenants  and 
dependents  was  now  being  constantly  reinforced  by  poor 
citizens,  who  in  these  hard,  disturbed,  and  cruel  times  found 
it  impossible  to  maintain  their  independence  either  in  town 
or  country.  In  this  landed  aristocracy  the  barbarian  invad- 
ers formed  an  increasing  element,  since  they  everywhere 
demanded  and  took  lands  for  themselves.  Yet  we  meet 
with  luxury  and  extravagance  amid  this  economic  and 
social  decline,  and  costly  games  and  festivals  were  still  fur- 
nished the  populace  in  the  large  cities. 

Something  of  ancient  art,  literature,  and  learning  still 
continued,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say,  still  con- 
Continued  tinned  to  decline.  The  landed  aristocracy  of  the 
decay  in  art  senatorial  and  official  class  prided  themselves 
upon  their  culture  and  were  addicted  to  writing 
one  another  letters,  poems,  and  panegyrics.  Athens  contin- 
ued to  have  a  university  even  after  Alaric  had  taken  it.  No 
new  attitudes,  spirit,  and  ideas  refreshed  the  works  of  this 
age,  however,  except  in  the  Christian  writings,  of  which 
we  shall  learn  later,  and  in  the  Christian  art  of  secluded 
Ravenna.  Nor  did  the  writers  succeed  in  retaining  the 
spirit  of  the  classical  period.  Instead  they  indulged  in  mere 
rhetoric,  combining  words  in  unusual  and  striking  ways, 
but  also  in  a  rather  unnatural  and  bombastic  fashion,  and 
making  all  sorts  of  quaint  and  recondite  allusion  to  the 
rich  background  of  literature,  mythology,  and  history  that 
lay  so  far  behind  them.  In  the  West,  Gaul  was  the  region 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  93 

where  Roman  culture  had  the  strongest  hold  in  the  fifth 
century. 

A  vivid  picture  is  drawn  for  us  of  the  wreck  and  ruin  of 
the  ancient  world  by  Salvian,  a  Christian  clergyman  of  the 
time.     He  holds  that  the  Roman  world  richly  salvian's 
deserves  the  multifold  calamities  that  have  be-  picture  of 
fallen  it,  because  of  the  immoral  lives  of  the 
majority  of  Christians  who  are  not  a  whit  better  than  the 
barbarians,  although  the  latter  are  ignorant  pagans  or  here- 
tics who  cannot  be  expected  to  have  as  high  standards  as 
the  orthodox  and  cultured  Christians  of  the  Empire.    He 
charges  that,  even  while  cities  are  being  besieged  by  the 
barbarians,  Christians  of  long  standing  get  drunk  within 
the  walls  and  that  "honored  Christians  who  are  decrepit 
with  age"  continue  slaves  to  gluttony  and  lasciviousness 
when  their  cities  are  on  the  very  verge  of  being  sacked.    The 
barbarous  Goths  are  models  of  chastity  compared  to  the 
lustful  Christians  of  Aquitania,  and  the  Vandals  did  away 
wath  the  public  prostitutes  of  Roman  Carthage.    "Nothing 
is  left  to  us  of  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  our  ancestors 
except    the    crimes    that    have    ruined    that    prosperity." 
Salvian's   moral   indignation   is   perhaps   somewhat   over- 
drawn; his  language  is  very  rhetorical;  and  his  sweeping 
charges  of  universal  immorality  are  probably  exaggerated, 
and  partly  due  to  his  prejudice  against  circuses  and  thea- 
ters, which  Christian  society  had  generally  retained  from 
the  pagan  past.   But  he  seems  well  informed  and  sometimes 
speaks  with  the  assurance  of  personal  experience,  and  many 
of  his  statements  are  corroborated  from  other  sources.    He 
tells  us  how  fathers,  in  order  to  get  a  little  protection  for 
themselves,  give  up  their  property  to  the  great  and  power- 
ful, so  that  their  sons  lose  their  inheritance  and  have  no 
lands.    Yet  the  government  still  holds  them  liable  to  taxa- 
tion.    These  and  many  others  who  have  fled  from  their 
lands  to  escape  invaders  or  tax-collectors,  have  no  course 
left  but  to  become  the  coloni  of  rich  landowners,  losing  their 
liberty  as  well  as  their  property  and  becoming  transformed 
from  men  into  swine  as  if  by  the  wand  of  Circe.  He  himself, 


94  THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

after  the  sack  of  cities,  has  seen  nude  corpses  of  both  sexes 
lying  about  everywhere  and  torn  by  birds  and  dogs.  And 
his  rage  rises  to  a  white  heat  against  certain  nobles  of 
Treves  who,  after  the  city  had  been  burned  and  sacked 
thrice,  could  still  ask  the  emperors  for  circuses.  "Where 
would  you  hold  these  public  spectacles  ?  "  he  asks,  —  "Over 
the  graves  and  ashes,  the  bones  and  blood  of  the  dead?" 
In  another  passage  he  gives  us  briefly  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter:  "The  whole  Roman  world  is  in  misery  and 
yet  is  luxurious.  ...    It  is  dying  and  it  laughs." 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

It  is  not  intended  that  the  student  should  attempt  to  memorize  every 
detailed  event  and  proper  name  in  this  chapter.  These  details  have  been 
given  to  aid  him  in  forming  a  correct  general  impression  for  himself.  Many 
of  the  emperors  at  this  time  are  hardly  worth  remembering  for  themselves, 
but  are  named  for  the  sake  of  clearness.  The  period  is  one  of  confusion, 
without  commanding  central  figures,  and  I  have  not  wished  to  make  it 
seem  too  orderly  and  simple  by  omitting  a  good  deal  and  overemphasizing 
a  few  points. 

The  original  sources  are  so  scanty  and  most  secondary  accounts  so 
wordy  that  outside  reading  may  be  done  rather  more  profitably  in  connec- 
tion with  other  chapters  than  this. 

For  a  rather  full  account  of  the  sources  with  translations  of  some  of  them 
see  the  work  of  C.  H.  Hayes,  An  Introduction  to  the  Sources  relating  to  the 
Germanic  Invasions  (New  York,  1909). 

Sources  for  the  Barbarian  Invasions. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  28-33,  35~39'  44~5i' 

57-59- 

Compare  the  following  pairs  of  selections  as  to  authorship,  date, 
reliability,  ground  covered,  and  general  tone  and  attitude:  10  and  14, 
12  and  13,  8  and  9,  15  and  16. 

The  General  Character  of  the  Invasions. 

Dill,  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of  the  Western  Empire  (second 
edition  revised),  pp.  285-302. 

Secondary  Narratives  of  the  Invasions. 

Any  chapter  applying  to  this  subject  and  period  in  either  of  the  follow 
ing:  — 

Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Bury,  Later  Roman  Empire. 
Hodgkin,  Italy  and  Her  Invaders. 

Odoacer  and  Theodoric. 

Oman,  The  Dark  Ages,  chap,  i,  pp.  1-18. 


CHAPTER  VI 
"the  city  of  god" 

The  City  of  God  is  the  usual  English  translation  for  the 
title  of  the  most  influential  book  written  in  the  fiith_-cen[- 
tury  and  one  which  was  the  favorite  reading  of  The  occasion 
Christians  for  many  succeeding  centuries.  The  ^i^^ci^^ 
entrance  of  Alaric's  barbaric  soldiery  into  of  ^^^ 
Rome,  the  "Eternal  City,"  in  410  made  a  tremendous  im- 
pression. Rome  had  at  last  fallen!  Of  all  cities  of  the 
Empire  it  had  remained  a  stronghold  of  paganism.  The 
senate  had  maintained  the  old  rites  until  the  reign  of 
Gratian  (375-383),  who  had  refused  to  hold  the  ofhce  of 
Pontijex  Maximus,  had  stopped  payment  for  pagan  sacri- 
fices and  ceremonies  from  the  imperial  treasury,  and  had 
taken  away  the  time-honored  privileges  and  revenues  of 
the  Roman  priesthoods.  Now,  within  less  than  thirty  years 
since  Gratian  had  removed  from  the  senate-house  the  altar 
and  statue  of  Victory  that  had  stood  there  as  long  as  the 
Empire  itself,  the  most  humiliating  of  defeats  had  come 
upon  the  city.  To  those  who  still  adhered  to  the  Roman 
religion  and  the  old  ways,  this  seemed  the  crowning  calam- 
ity in  the  series  of  misfortunes  which  the  adoption  of 
Christianity  as  the  state  religion  had  brought  upon  them 
and  their  cause.  Such  pagans  attributed  the  fall  of  Rome  to 
the  fact  that  the  government  and  many  citizens  had  aban- 
doned the  worship  of  the  ancient  Roman  gods,  had  neglected 
those  efficacious  rites  and  spurned  that  divine  guidance 
under  which  the  city  had  risen  through  victory  after  vic- 
tory to  the  height  of  its  power  and  had  transformed  itself 
into  a  world-empire. 

Such  complaints  found  an  answer  from  the  great  church 
father,  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo  in  North  Africa.  From 
413  to  426  he  labored  on  his  long  and  elaborate  reply.  Four 
years  after  finishing  it,  he  died  in  Hippo  while  that  city 


96         THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

was  resisting  a  siege  by  the  Vandals.   Augustine  had  shared 
c,  A  the  secular  life  of  his  times  before  he  became  a 

bt.  Augus- 
tine, the  Christian  and  a  clergyman,  and  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  many  of  the  leading  men  of  the 
age.  He  had  studied  in  the  schools  of  rhetoric  and  had  taught 
that  subject  at  Milan;  he  was  well  versed  in  Latin  culture; 
he  had  dabbled  in  his  youth  in  Manichseism,  astrology,  and 
Neo-Platonism,  reading  Plotinus  in  Latin  translation,  not 
in  the  original  Greek,  but  being  repelled  at  that  time  from 
the  Christian  Scriptures  by  the  rude  Latin  of  the  copies 
which  he  tried  to  read.  His  life  before  he  became  a  Christian 
had  not  been  beyond  reproach,  as  he  had  an  illegitimate 
son  and  more  than  one  mistress.  We  know  so  much  about 
him  chiefly  because  he  talked  so  much  about  himself,  being, 
like  Petrarch  and  Rousseau  later,  one  of  those  who  have 
penned  Confessions  for  the  world's  eye.  In  388  he  returned 
from  Italy  to  Africa,  and  three  years  later  was  ordained  a 
priest  at  Hippo  without  having  passed  through  any  of  the 
lower  orders.  He  introduced  into  Africa  the  practice  of 
having  all  the  clergy  of  a  town  live  together  as  monks, 
although  he  did  not  write  the  rule  followed  by  the  later 
Augustinian  Order.  In  396  he  was  made  bishop.  The  City 
of  God  is  only  one  of  his  numerous  writings. 

The  City  of  God  is  divided  into  twenty-two  books,  but 
these  do  not  correspond  to  sharply  defined  logical  divisions 
Argument       o^  the  thought,  as  the  contents  are  not  very  well 
of  the  book     arranged  and  there  are  many  digressions.     But 
the  main  points  for  us  are  as  follows.   The  book  opens  with 
the  assertion  that  Christianity  js^  not_responsible  for  the 
v)    sack  of  Rome  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  its  horrors  were 
V>    softened  and  worse  atrocities  were  prevente3~]5y "Christian 
Influence  upon  the  Goths.     Soon  leaving  this  unpleasant 
memory,  however,  Augustine  launches  forth  into  Roman 
S  history,  which,  he  asserts,  shows._by  many  previous  disas- 
ters that  the  old  gods  had  not  saved  Rome  from  misfortune. 
Augustine  persuaded  a  Spanish  disciple  of  his,  Orosius,  to 
write  a  very  distorted  history  of  the  world  to  bring  out  the 
same  point.    Augustine  further  makes  many  criticisms  of 


THE  CITY  OF  GOD  97 

the  Roman  gods  and  their  worship,  describing  the  vicious 
Roman  stage,  the  immorality  of  the  gods  themselves  as  set 
forth  in  classical  mythology  and  of  the  rites  used  in  their 
worship,  ridiculing  Roman  theology  for  its  multiplicity  of 
deities  and  infinite  subdivision  of  functions  among  them, 
denying  the  belief  in  oracles  and  pagan  methods  of  divina- 
tion, engaging  in  a  passing  tilt  with  the  astrologers  of  his 
day,  and,  finally,  affirming  that  all  the  deities  and  divine 
forces  believed  in  by  the  non-Christian  world  are  "demons" 
only  in  the  sense  of  being  evil  spirits,  fallen  angels,  and 
serv^ants  of  Satan.  Having  thus  disposed  of  paganism,  he  .^  ; 
declares  that  one  Christian  God  controls  all  states  and  all 
human  endeavor.  It  was  He,  not  any  gods  snatched  by 
■^neas  from  the  flames  of  a  Troy  which  they  could  not  save, 
who  had  raised  Rome  to  power  because  of  the  moral  and 
devoted  lives  of  her  early  patriots.  Her  decline  in  turn  was  . 
due_to  the  decay  of  those  pristine  virtues,  not  to  the  intro-  "^ 
duction  of  Christianity,  since  even  before  the  birth  of 
Christ  the  Roman  Republic  had  gone  to  ruin.  Augustine 
also  insists  that  Christians  do  not  favor  peace  at  any  price, 
and  that  the  principles  of  Christianity,  if  practiced  gener- 
ally by  both  people  and  officials,  would  save  the  State.  But 
he  has  not  yet  answered  the  natural  query,  Why  has  God 
allow  ed  the  barbarians  to  sack  Rome  now  that  it  has  become 
Christian?  He  can  only  say  that  such  an  earthly  disaster  is 
no  death-blow  to  the  true  Christian,  and  turn  his  readers' 
attention  from  the  earthly  to  the  heavenly  city,  from  the 
city  of  Rome  to  the  city  of  God,  just  as  we  saw  the  Stoic 
emperor,  Marcus  Aurelius,  turn  his  mind  from  the  dear 
city  of  Cecrops  to  the  dear  city  of  Zeus. 

The  city  of  God  is  not  merely  heaven,  the  abode  of  the 
Trinity  and  angels,  to  which  those  who  have  been  saved  by 
divine  grace  may  look  forward  from  among  the  The  Chris- 
woes  of  this  world  as  their  eternal  home.   It  also  a?Jhe  city 
has  an  existence  here  on  earth  in  the  spiritual  life  of  God 
of  true  believers.  Augustine  traces  its  history  from  creation 
down  through  Abel  and  the  story  of  the  Jews,  God's  chosen 
people,  to  the  coming  of  Jesus,  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and 


98  THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

spread  of  Christianity.  The  Church,  in  short,  is  the  cijfcv  of 
God.  ^"^  ^^ 

Christianity  began  in  Palestine  among  the  Jewish  people, 
who,  however,  had  by  this  time  been  subjected  to  the 
Teachings  of  Hellenistic  culture  which  spread  through  Alex- 
Christianity  ^^der's  empire.  So  close  was  the  relationship 
between  Christianity  and  Judaism  that  the  Hebraic  reli- 
gious literature  of  the  Old  Testament  was  incorporated  in 
one  Bible  together  with  the  Greek  New  Testament,  which 
was  of  Christian  authorship  and  which  was  believed  to  ful- 
fill the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament.  To  the  Hebraic 
conception  of  one  supreme  and  personal  God,  who  had 
created  the  universe  out  of  nothing  and  who  guided  the 
affairs  of  men,  was  now  added  the  Gospel  story.  It  told  of 
the  Son  of  God,  Jesus  Christ,  who  had  been  born  in  this 
world  of  a  woman,  had  led  a  sinless  life,  had  left  many 
social  and  moral  teachings,  had  worked  numerous  miracles, 
had  then  been  crucified  by  the  Jewish  priests  and  Roman 
governor,  but  had  demonstrated  his  divinity  by  rising  from 
the  tomb  and  ascending  to  heaven  and  by  the  workings  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  ever  since  in  his  followers.  They  were  held 
to  high  standards  of  morality,  were  to  try  to  lead  pure  lives 
themselves  and  to  engage  in  loving  service  of  their  fellow- 
men.  In  return  they  were  promised  forgiveness  of  their 
past  sins,  a  comforting  personal  communion  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  after  death  an  eternal  life  of  bliss  with  God. 

The  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  marked  an  advance 

■upon  those  of  the  Old  Testament,  whose  Mosaic  law  and 

R  lation         chroniclcs  savor  in  parts  of  an  age  of  crude  super- 

of  Chris-        stition  and  bloodshed  —  just  as  its  psalms  and 

p?evious°       prophets  at  times  reach  high  planes  of  moral 

-thought  fervor  and  religious  sentiment.    The  Christian 

and  practice     ,        ,  .  ,  ,  .     , 

teachmgs  were  by  no  means,  however,  entirely 

new  or  strange  to  the  age  in  which  they  were  put  forth.  A 
■gospel  of "  peace  on  earth  and  good-will  toward  men  "  chimed 
in  with  the  peaceful  and  humane  Roman  Empire  from  Au- 
gustus to  Marcus  Aurelius.  Back  four  hundred  years  before 
Christ  the  Greek  tragic  poet  Euripides  wrote  many  tender 


THE   CITY  OF   GOD  99 

or  moral  passages,  which  are  suggestive  in  thought  and  some- 
times even  in  phraseology  of  the  New  Testament.  Many 
philosophers  had  already  come  to  a  belief  in  one  God, 
whom,  however,  they  did  not  venture  to  describe  as  a  per- 
son. The  Stoics  advanced  the  idea  of  one  law  of  nature  and 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  even  including  slaves.  Plutarch, 
though  still  immersed  in  pagan  religions  and  old  supersti- 
tions, shows  us  a  distinct  advance  in  the  early  Empire  over 
the  moral  standards  of  the  older  Greeks  and  Romans,  and 
Juvenal,  another  non-Christian  writer  of  Rome,  tells  us  that 
"fools  seek  revenge,  philosophers  forgive."  Nor  were  the 
teachings  of  philosophy  confined  to  the  educated  and  intel- 
lectual classes,  for  we  hear  of  philosophers  who  preached  to 
the  mob  in  the  streets  or  who  rolled  over  naked  in  the  show 
to  show  the  privates  in  the  imperial  army  that  cold  has  no 
terrors  for  the  good  man.  The  actual  daily  life  of  most 
people  was,  however,  far  from  realizing  the  ideals  of  the 
philosophers,  —  people  seldom  have  lived  up  to  their  ideals 
in  any  age,  —  and  the  Apostle  Paul  had  to  warn  his  Chris- 
tian converts  repeatedly  and  painstakingly  against  worship 
of  idols  and  illicit  sexual  intercourse.  Not  philosophy  alone, 
but  other  religions  had  been  moving  in  much  the  same 
general  direction  as  Christianity.  We  have  already  noted 
in  the  spread  of  other  Oriental  cults  in  the  Empire  the  em- 
phasis upon  personal  relation  with  the  deity,  forgiveness  of 
sins,  a  redeemer,  and  a  resurrection  or  after  life.  Thus  the 
way  was  prepared  for  the  spread  of  Christianity  by  other 
movements,  either  earlier  or  contemporaneous  with  it. 

What    especially   distinguished    Christianity   from    the 
other  cults  was  the  remarkable  personality  of  its  founder, 
sketched  so  vividly  in  the  four  Gospels  against  The  distinc- 
the  familiar  background  of  daily  human  experi-  a^Ity^of^^"" 
ence.  For  one  thing,  for  example.  He  was  a  most  Christ 
unconventional  person  who  brushed  aside  the  cobwebs  of 
conservatism.   He  broke  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  talked  with  a 
woman  of  Samaria,  feasted  with  tax-collectors  and  sinners, 
forgave  an  adulteress,  justified  Mary  Magdalene  for  buy- 
ing costly  ointment  with  which  to  bathe  his  feet  instead  of 


lOO       THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

giving  the  money  to  the  poor,  and,  in  place  of  the  neg- 
ative injunctions  of  the  Hebrew  Ten  Commandments, 
with  their  "Thou  shalt  not,"  preached  a  positive  gospel  of 
love. 

During  the  first  and  second  centuries  the  Christians  seem 
to  have  come  mainly  from  the  poorer  and  lower  classes  of 
The  early  socicty.  Christ  had  said,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye 
Christian  who  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."  Rich  men,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
warned  that  they  would  have  difficulty  in  entering  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  were  advised  to  dispose  of  their  prop- 
erty first  and  to  give  unto  the  poor.  The  disciples  were  sent 
forth  penniless  to  preach  the  Gospel  —  an  ideal  of  apos- 
tolic poverty  which  was  to  have  great  influence  throughout 
the  iVIiddle  Ages.  The  first  Christian  communities  shared 
their  goods  in  common  and  awaited  expectantly  the  end  of 
this  world  and  the  coming  of  a  better.  Even  when  they 
gave  up  the  notion  that  the  second  coming  of  Christ  was 
close  at  hand  and  returned  to  a  more  normal  mode  of  life, 
they  still  reckoned  things  spiritual  as  of  more  importance 
than  ordinary  human  interests  and  activities,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  eternal  life  in  the  next  world  as  of  more  moment  than 
citizenship  in  the  Roman  Empire.  Ignatius,  one  of  the 
earliest  Christian  writers,  even  went  soTaras  to  assert  that 
"nothing  visible  is  good."  This  tendency  was  accentuated 
by  the  persecution  to  which  the  Christians  were  often 
subjected  by  the  outside  world,  and  by  the  fact  that  they 
lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  miracle,  prophecy,  and  martyr- 
dom. Various  apostles  and  wandering  missionaries  like 
Paul  had  founded  numerous  scattered  churches,  of  whose 
local  organization  we  at  first  know  little,  except  that  they 
had  officials  called  overseers  or  episcopi  or  bishops,  elders 
or  presbyters  or  priests,  and  deacons.  From  these  are  de- 
rived the  present  names  of  such  churches  as  the  Episco- 
palian and  Presbyterian.  At  first  Christian  sentiment  seems 
to  have  favored  great  liberty  in  "prophesying";  that  is,  in 
preaching  by  any  one  who  was  so  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
One  early  Christian  declared  that  the  truth  or  falsity  of  a 


THE   CITY  OF   GOD  loi 

prophet  should  be  inferred  not  from  what  he  said,  but  from 
the  godliness  or  selfishness  of  his  life. 

Besides  hymn  and  prayer,  preaching  and  prophecy,  cer- 
tain sacred  ceremonies  and  symbols  played  a  large  part  in 
early  Christianity.  Such  were  the  sign  of  the  The  sac- 
cross,  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  the  mysteries  or  raments 
sacraments  of  baptism  with  water  and  the  Lord's  Supper  or 
Eucharist  of  bread  and  wine.  By  these  sacraments  divine 
grace  and  life  were  believed  to  be  communicated  to  the 
believer.  Baptism  was  believed  to  cleanse  from  sin,  and 
many  Christians,  including  later  some  of  the  Christian 
emperors,  postponed  it  until  the  very  end  of  life  in  order 
that  all  their  sins  might  be  blotted  out.  The  proper  time  for 
baptism,  however,  was  when  one  entered  the  Christian  life. 
Three  of  the  four  Gospels  represent  Jesus,  at  the  Last  Sup- 
per with  his  disciples  before  he  was  crucified,  as  blessing 
and  breaking  the  bread  and  giving  it  to  them  with  the 
words,  "This  is  my  body,"  and  as  then  passing  the  wine 
with  the  remark,  "This  is  my  blood  which  is  shed  for  many 
for  the  remission  of  sins."  This  ceremony  was  continued 
by  the  early  Christian  communities,  and  the  idea  came  to 
prevail  that  the  words  of  Christ  were  to  be  taken  literally, 
that  the  bread  and  wine  were  his  body  and  blood,  by  par- 
taking of  which  the  human  body  became  joined  with  the 
divine  Christ. 

The  founding  of  scattered  communities  by  different  wan- 
dering missionaries,  and  the  freedom  at  first  permitted  to 
"prophets"  of  airing  their  supposedly  divine  Growth  of 
revelations,  naturally  produced  much  local  vari-  heresy 
ance  in  belief  and  practice,  especially  since  Christians  in 
different  places  sometimes  retained  customs  and  notions 
from  the  previous  religion  of  their  particular  locality.  As  a 
result  heresies  sprang  up  and  apocryphal  scriptures  were 
composed  which  the  Church  as  a  whole  has  rejected.  One  or 
two  prominent  early  heresies  may  be  mentioned  by  way  of 
illustration.  Montanism  is  named  from  Montanus,  an  ec- 
static prophet  in  Asia  Minor  about  150  A.D.,  whose  life  was 
very  strict  and  ascetic  and  who  emphasized  unduly  the 


I02        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Christian  reaction  against  ancient  learning  and  civilization. 
Gnosticism,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  heresy  of  the  second 
century  which  adopted  the  cosmology  and  astrology  of  the 
ancients  and  interpreted  Christian  story  in  the  light  of  them. 
Many  men  of  that  day  were  inclined  to  take  the  Gospel 
story  as  a  sort  of  allegory  rather  than  as  history,  or  to  hold 
that  God  had  never  really  become  man,  but  that  Christ  was 
a  kind  of  phantom  or  celestial  image.  The  most  dangerous 
heresy  during  the  period  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  Arian- 
ism,  which,  the  orthodox  held,  relegated  Christ  to  a  second- 
ary place  compared  to  God  the  Father.  Arianism  in  the 
fourth  century  had  a  strong  hold  in  the  East  and  most  of  the 
barbarian  invaders  of  the  fifth  century  were  Arians. 

To  prevent  heresy  church  unity  and  organization  devel- 
oped. The  bishop  became  the  chief  local  authority  and  one 
Develop-  was  elected  by  the  members  of  the  Christian 
dim-ch  or-  Community  in  each  city.  By  the  middle  of  the 
ganization  third  century  the  Christian  Cyprian,  in  his  Unity 
of  the  Church,  declares  that  there  is  only  one  Catholic  Church, 
and  that  no  one  outside  it  can  be  saved  even  though  he 
suffer  a  martyr's  death  "for  confessing  the  name  of  Christ." 
For  "he  can  no  longer  have  God  for  his  father  who  has  not 
the  Church  for  his  mother."  In  order  to  keep  the  various 
bishops  in  agreement  two  customs  grew  up.  One  was  to 
have  the  bishops  of  a  given  area  meet  together;  Cyprian, 
for  instance,  during  the  ten  years  that  he  was  Bishop  of 
Carthage  called  a  number  of  such  meetings  or  local  church 
councils.  Another  method  was  to  look  to  some  one  Christian 
community  as  a  rhodel  or  authority  in  doctrine  and  as  an 
umpire  in  disputes.  The  church  at  Rome  seems  from  an 
early  date  to  have  been  thus  looked  up  to;  the  sees  of 
Alexandria  and  Antioch  perhaps  came  next  in  importance. 
The  bishops  in  such  places  were  known  as  metropolitans 
or  archbishops. 

The  early  Christians  were  very  unfavorably  regarded  by 
Roman  society.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  that  Christians, 
who  have  always  prided  themselves  upon  their  lofty  moral 
standards  and  regarded  other  faiths  and  rites  as  supersti- 


THE   CITY  OF  GOD  103 

tious,  were  themselves  considered  grossly  immoral  and  su- 
perstitious by  the  pagan  world.  Yet  Suetonius  p^  ^^  ^^^^ 
spoke  of  "Christians,  a  class  of  men  of  a  new  tility  to 
and  vicious  superstition  " ;  and  Tacitus  remarked 
their  "moral  enormities"  and  their  "hatred  of  the  human 
race,"  and  asserted  that  "they  were  criminals  who  deserved 
the  most  severe  punishment."  The  pagan  mob  believed 
them  guilty  of  such  practices  as  incest  and  devouring 
children.  Such  horrible  stories  circulated  about  them  prob- 
ably because  they  seemed  to  the  pagans  a  people  with 
strange,  peculiar,  and  mysterious  ways,  who  held  aloof 
from  popular  festivals  and  much  of  the  life  of  the  ancient 
city  and  had  their  own  private  meetings.  We  find  the  same 
attitude  toward  the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  they 
were  often  attacked  by  Christian  mobs  and  when  similar 
stories  were  current  among  Christians  concerning  them. 

One  might  expect  the  Roman  government  with  Its  good 
law  courts  to  have  soon  discovered  that  there  was  little 
truth  in  these  charges  against  the  Christians  Attitude  of 
and  to  have  protected  them  against  mob  vio-  ^^^  ^"JJ^nt 
lence.  And  so  to  a  certain  extent  it  did.  But  the 
government  had  further  reasons  of  Its  own  for  being  suspi- 
cious of  the  CTiristians  and  for  punishing  thenK^Chrlstianity 
had  originated  in  Judea,  and  not  long  thereafter~tEeJews 
haHTevolted^againsT  the  rule  of  Rorne,  and  had  refused 
to  submit  eve"iT"^when  Jerusalem  was  besieged  in  70  a.d. 
Rather  than  surrender  they  did  eat  human  flesh,  and  killed 
themselves  and  burned  the  city  as  the  Romans  stormed  It. 
Jerusalem  till  this  time  had  been  the  chief  center  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  allusions  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  to 
Babylon,  the  great  harlot,  and  to  "the  image  of  the  beast" 
probably  apply  to  Rome  and  to  worship  of  the  emperor. 
At  any  rate.  Christians  refused  to  worship  the  emperor  or 
to  join  in  other  civic  rites,  and  so  the  government  could 
hardly  do  anything  else  than  regard  them  as  obstinate 
rebels.  Origen,  the  great  Alexandrian  church  father  In  the 
first  half  of  the  third  century,  admitted  the  truth  of  the 
charge  "  that  Christians  decline  public  offices,"  and  declared 


I04        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

those  persons  "  enemies  of  our  faith  who  require  us  to  bear 
arms  for  the  commonwealth  and  to  slay  men."  Moreover, 
the  organization  of  Christians  in  churches  and  their  fre- 
quent meetings  violated  the  laws  of  the  emperors  against 
associations,  which  we  have  seen  one  emperor  so  careful  to 
enforce  that  he  even  forbade  the  establishment  of  a  volun- 
teer fire  department  lest  it  lead  to  sedition.  Consequently 
the  usual  penalty  for  confessing  one's  self  a  Christian  was 
death,  sometimes  in  the  arena  or  with  torture.  Such  was 
the  letter  of  the  law,  but  sincejthe  Christians  did  not  actu- 
ally attack  the  government,  most  emperors  did  not  try  to 
ferret  them  out  and  to  annihilate  them  by  wholesale  perse- 
cution, but  did  punish  any  one  who  was  publicly  charged 
with  being  a  Christian  and  who  did  not  free  himself  from 
the  accusation  by  worshiping  the  statue  of  the  emperor  or 
images  of  the  gods.  But  anonymous  accusations  were  usu- 
ally disregarded,  and  any  one  who  falsely  accused  another 
of  being  a  Christian  was  liable  to  severe  punishment  himself. 
Meanwhile  the  Christians  kept  increasing  in  numbers  in 
pursuance  of  the  injunction  of  Jesus,  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
From  perse-  ^^^^^  ^^d  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature, 
cution  to  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved ; 
riump  ^^^  j^^  ^^^^  believeth  not  shall  be  damned."   By 

the  third  century  there  were  erudite  Christian  writers  to 
reply  to  the  attacks  which  cultured  pagans  now  thought  it 
worth  while  to  make  upon  Christianity.  The  emperors,  too, 
awoke  to  the  fact  that  the  Christians  were  increasing  rapidly 
in  numbers,  wealth,  and  power,  and  from  the  middle  of  the 
third  century  tried  to  crush  them  by  systematic  persecution. 
Many  Christians  suffered  martyrdom  and  more  recanted; 
some  did  neither,  but  purchased  from  corrupt  officials  certifi- 
cates that  they  had  performed  pagan  sacrifice  when  they 
really  had  not;  but  the  Church  as  a  whole  successfully 
weathered  the  storm.  We  possess  an  edict  of  311  in  which 
the  Emperor  Galerius  says  that  he  has  decided  to  tolerate 
even  the  Christians  because  persecuting  them  does  no  good. 
Finally  with  Constantlne  Christianity  triumphed ;  and  soon 
began  In  its  turn  to  persecute  all  pagans  and  heretics. 


THE  CITY  OF  GOD  105 

At  Constantine's  call  the  first  general  or  oecumenical 
council  of  all  Christian  churches  met  at  Nicsea,  near  Con- 
stantinople, in  325  and  decided  against  Arianism.  Christianity 
There  now  had  come  to  be  a  regular  series  of  the  state 
offices  through  which  a  clergyman  usually  had  to  "^^  *^^°" 
pass;  namely,  reader,  exorcist,  acolyte,  sub-deacon,  deacon, 
priest,  and  bishop.  For  there  was  now  a  clear  distinction 
in  the  Church  between  mere  believers,  the  laymen  or  laity, 
and  those  who  officiated  in  the  churches,  the  clergy.  The 
clergy  were  given  many  privileges  by  the  Christian  suc- 
cessors of  Constantine,  as  their  edicts  in  the  Theodosian 
Code  show.  They  were  in  large  measure  personally  ex- 
empted from  state  duties  and  taxes;  and  in  most  criminal 
and  some  civil  cases  were  to  be  tried  by  their  own  bishops 
rather  than  by  the  imperial  courts.  Before  Christianity  had 
been  recognized  by  the  State,  it  was  often  the  practice  for 
the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy  to  settle  their  disputes  pri- 
vately before  their  bishop  instead  of  in  the  public  courts, 
and  the  emperors  now  allowed  the  bishops  to  continue  this 
jurisdiction  to  a  certain  extent.  The  emperors  would  not 
permit  rich  men  to  escape  paying  taxes  by  becoming  clergy- 
men, but  they  did  allow  the  Church  as  a  corporation  to  re- 
ceive bequests,  and  themselves  endowed  it  freely.  Such 
church  lands  were  subject  to  taxation,  but  this  did  not 
prevent  the  Church  and  many  individual  bishops  from 
growing  very  wealthy,  and  by  the  fifth  century  the  Church 
is  estimated  to  have  become  the  greatest  landholder  in  the 
Empire. 

Although  a  century  had  elapsed  between  the  time  when 
Constantine  presided  at  the  Council  of  Nicaea  and  the  pub- 
lication of  The  City  of  God,  and  although  many  Persistence 
edicts  against  paganism  had  been  issued  in  the  °^  paganism 
interim  by  Christian  emperors,  Augustine's  book  itself  shows 
us  that  the  pagan  religions  had  not  yet  disappeared.  Close 
friends,  members  of  the  same  family,  even  husband  and 
wife,  might  still  be,  one  pagan,  the  other  Christian.  It  is 
hard  to  tell  whether  some  of  the  extant  writings  of  this 
period  were  penned  by  a  Christian  or  not.   There  were  men 


io6        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROrE 

who  "looked  on  Christ  and  the  sun  as  almost  equally  good 
symbols  of  the  Supreme,"  and  others  who  regarded  astrol- 
ogy as  the  truth  back  of  all  religions.  Synesius  of  Cyrene, 
previously  a  Neo-Platonist,  suddenly  became  a  Christian 
bishop  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  apparently 
without  surrendering  his  belief  that  man  could  read  the 
future  in  dreams  and  in  the  stars,  and  certainly  without 
giving  up  either  his  wife  or  his  Neo-Platonism. 

When  the  emperors  legalized  and  favored  Christianity 
and  legislated  against  heresy,  one  might  fear  that  they 
Growth  of  would  make  themselves  heads  of  the  Church, 
the  Papacy  Constantine  had  been  responsible  for  the  calling 
of  the  first  general  council,  and  he  came  to  be  known  in  the 
East  as  one  of  the  apostles.  A  Western  Christian  apolo- 
gist during  the  reigns  of  Constantine's  sons  —  the  same 
Firmicus  whose  book  on  astrology  we  have  already  quoted 
—  addresses  them  as  "most  sacred  emperors,"  setting  them 
above  the  rest  of  mankind  and  closely  associating  them  with 
the  celestial  bodies  and  "the  Supreme  God,"  at  the  same 
time  that  he  urges  them  to  eradicate  pagan  cults.  In  429 
the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  called  the  emperor  the  "image 
of  God  on  earth."  But  the  emperors  in  the  West  seem  for 
the  most  part  to  have  preferred  to  leave  religious  matters 
to  the  Church  itself  to  settle,  and  in  the  East  the  emperors 
often  failed  to  control  the  strife  of  religious  parties  when 
they  did  try  to  interfere.  Councils  were  now  held  with  in- 
creasing frequency  and  at  the  same  time  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
appears  to  have  increased  in  importance  and  power.  One 
would  naturally  expect,  especially  after  the  fall  of  Jerusa- 
lem in  70  A.D.,  that  the  leading  early  Christian  community 
would  develop  at  Rome,  the  center  and  the  greatest  city  of 
the  Empire.  Moreover,  it  was  believed  from  an  early  date 
that  both  Peter  and  Paul  had  suffered  martyrdom  there. 
In  the  Gospels  Jesus  often  addresses  Peter  as  the  leader 
among  the  disciples,  and  in  one  passage  says:  "Thou  art 
Peter  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church.  .  .  .  And 
I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  and 
whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in 


THE   CITY  OF  GOD  107 

heaven:  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven."^  The  Bishops  of  Rome  have  therefore 
argued  that  Peter  was  the  first  Bishop  of  Rome  and  that 
they  are  his  successors  as  chief  of  the  apostles  and  as  head 
of  the  Church. 

The  pagan  historian,  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  tells  of  a 
fight  at  a  papal  election  in  366  as  a  result  of  which  one 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  persons  were  killed ;  but  adds  that 
the  office  was  worth  fighting  for,  since  it  brought  with  it 
a  large  income  which  enabled  the  bishop  to  dress  elegantly 
and  to  ride  in  a  carriage  and  to  give  banquets  that  outshone 
those  of  the  emperor.  Damasus,  the  very  pope  elected  on 
that  occasion,  is  the  first  to  give  us  a  definite  statement  of 
the  papal  claims  and  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Church. 
From  his  successor,  Siricius,  comes  the  first  extant  papal 
decretal  or  order  issued  to  the  Church  at  large.  ^^Since  the 
popes  consistently  opposed  Arianism,  whereas  the  attitude 
of  many  Eastern  bishops  was  wavering,  when  the  orthodox 
Theodosian  dynasty  came  into  power  the  papal  influence 
continued  to  increase.  | 

The  last  Western  emperor  of  that  family  in  445  issued 
an  edict  ordering  other  churches  to  recognize  as  supreme 
the  authority  of  the  apostolic  see  at  Rome,  and  Leo  the 
justifying  that  supremacy  by  Rome's  connection  Great 
with  Peter,  by  the  majesty  of  the  city  itself,  and  by  a 
decree  of  the  Council  of  Sardika  a  century  before.  The 
Bishop  .of  Rome  at  this  time  was  Leo  the  Great  (440-461), 
who  is  often  regarded  as  the  first  to  try  to  raise  that  office 
to  something  like  the  power  of  later  times.  He  not  only 
claimed  to  be  sole  head  of  the  Church,  but  by  his  partici- 
pation in  the  embassy  to  Attila  left  a  precedent  for  the 
political  activity  of  his  successors.  During  the  fifth  century 
several  quarrels  between  the  Patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and 
Constantinople  prevented  any  single  see  In  the  East  from 
acquiring  an  authority  comparable  to  that  of  Rome  in  the 

^  Matthew  xvi,  18,  19;  but  two  chapters  later  (Matthew  xviii,  17,  18)  the 
same  powers  are  given  to  the  disciples  and  the  Church  in  general.  See  also 
John  XX,  22,  23. 


io8        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

West,  and  gave  the  Papacy  a  chance  to  assert  its  supremacy 
by  interfering  in  those  quarrels.  Leo  in  especial  was  incHned 
to  make  his  influence  so  felt,  as  we  may  see  illustrated  in 
the  story  of  two  church  councils. 

An  abbot  condemned  for  heresy  by  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople  appealed  both  to  the  Eastern  emperor  and 
The  "Rob-  to  the  pope.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Western 
t'er  Council"  emperor  had  no  part  in  the  affair.  Contrary  to 
Council  of  Leo's  wish  the  Eastern  emperor  called  a  council 
Chalcedon  ^^  Ephesus  Under  the  presidency  of  the  Patri- 
arch of  Alexandria.  Leo,  however,  wrote  out  his  decision 
in  favor  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  and  sent  it  to 
the  council  by  his  three  representatives.  The  council  did 
not  deign  even  to  read  Leo's  tTome,  but  deposed  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  and  further  treated  him  with  such 
violence  that  he  soon  died  from  the  effects,  while  one  of  the 
papal  legates  who  protested  against  the  council's  action 
was  lucky  to  escape  with  his  life.  Leo  had  no  intention  of 
allowing  such  proceedings  to  pass  unchallenged ;  he  induced 
the  members  of  the  imperial  house  in  the  West  to  write  to 
Constantinople  in  his  support;  and  finally  secured  another 
council  at  Chalcedon,  near  Constantinople,  to  reconsider 
the  action  of  "the  Robber  Council,"  as  Leo  termed  the 
recent  assembly  at  Ephesus.  Now  the  Patriarch  of  Alex- 
andria who  had  presided  at  Ephesus  was  driven  from  his 
see,  and  the  questions  in  dispute  were  settled  on  the  basis 
of  Leo's  Tome.  Leo,  however,  was  very  much  offended  by 
the  twenty-eighth  canon  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  which 
he  regarded  as  -an  attempt  to  raise  the  see  of  Constanti- 
nople to  an  equality  with  that  of  Rome. 

This  canon  may  be  taken  as  marking  a  growing  breach 
between  the  Eastern  Church  and  the  Western,  which  was 
Schisms  in  increased  in  482  when  the  Emperor  Zeno  issued 
the  East  ^  letter  called  the  HenoHcon.  It  was  intended  to 
provide  a  common  meeting-ground  for  all  the  religious 
factions  in  the  East;  but  it  was  not  at  all  acceptable  to 
the  pope  at  Rome,  who  finally  excommunicated  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople  and  thus  instituted  a  schism  of 


THE   CITY   OF   GOD  109 

over  thirty  years'  duration.  In  the  East  itself,  moreover, 
Christian  Egypt  was  already  tending  toward  the  formation 
of  a  distinct  Coptic  Church,  and  the  Nestorians,  treated  as 
heretics  in  the  Empire,  built  up  a  strong  church  of  their 
own  in  the  Persian  Kingdom,  whence  they  were  soon  to 
spread  as  missionaries  to  the  Far  East. 

Meanwhile  there  had  ceased  to  be  an  emperor  in  the  West, 
and  the  pope  was  freed  from  the  danger  that  a  ruler  at 
Rome    might    interfere    with    his    ecclesiastical  ^  j 

°  ,  .       Papacy  and 

supremacy  as  the  Byzantine  emperor  often  did  barbarians 
in  the  case  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 
The  barbarian  kings  in  Italy,  Odoacer  and  Theodoric,  had 
little  desire  to  interfere  in  ecclesiastical  matters;  and  the 
Germans  generally  were  to  prove  docile  to  the  dictates  of  the 
Western  Church.  For  the  time  being,  however,  the  break-up 
of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  war  and  disorder  separated 
the  Western  churches  outside  of  Italy  from  papal  influence. 
The  other-worldliness  of  Christianity  has  already  been 
emphasized.  There  are  many  passages  of  Scripture  which 
have  led  men  to  hate  their  bodies,  to  withdraw  Growth  of 
from  the  world,  to  devote  themselves  to  the  con-  asceticism 
templative  life,  and  to  exercise  their  souls  in  holiness.  But 
we  do  not  hear  much  of  Christian  hermits  and  monks  until 
the  close  of  the  third  century.  Martyrs  had  been  the  heroes 
of  the  early  Church ;  but  as  the  chance  of  winning  an  immor- 
tal crown  by  being  thrown  to  wild  beasts  ceased  with  impe- 
rial toleration  and  recognition  of  Christianity,  ascetics  came 
to  be  considered  the  holiest  Christians.  During  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries  every  one  was  reading  with  awe  and  ad- 
miration the  Lives  of  St.  Antony  and  St.  Martin  of  Tours, 
and  many  were  fired  ^rtH~the  desire  to  imitate  their  self- 
renunciation  and  austerities,  and  with  the  hope  to  triumph 
like  them  over  the  flesh  and  the  Devil  and  to  work  miracles. 
The  early  Christian  communities  had  been  composed  largely 
of  those  whose  ordinary  worldly  life  was  hard  enough,  and 
whose  secret  meetings  and  communistic  views  shut  them  off 
sufficiently  from  the  world.  But  when  Christianity  became 
the  state  religion  and  the  majority  of  the  population  became 


•  no       THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

at  least  nominal  converts  and  the  Church  began  to  grow 
wealthy,  many  persons  began  to  feel  that  they  must  do 
something  more  than  belong  to  the  Church  or  even  to  the 
clergy,  if  they  wished  to  be  sure  of  saving  their  souls.  Their 
method  was  to  flee  to  the  desert,  to  seclude  themselves  in 
tombs  and  caves,  to  see  nothing  of  the  opposite  sex,  to  eat 
and  sleep  very  little,  to  wash  even  less,  in  general  to  avoid 
doing  anything  pleasant,  to  have  no  property  or  passions  or 
will  of  their  own,  to  forget  all  family  and  social  ties,  to 
spend  their  time  partly  in  some  dull,  mechanical  operation 
like  weaving  baskets  or  copying  manuscripts  in  order  to 
eke  out  their  scanty  existence,  and  to  pass  the  rest  of  each 
day  in  prayer,  repeating  Scripture,  and  other  acts  which 
would  keep  their  minds  off  any  other  subject  than  religion. 
All  this  may  seem  to  us  gloomy  and  unprofitable,  but  to 
them  it  seemed  the  path  to  perfect  peace,  happiness,  and 
contentment.  The  age  delighted  in  stories  of  the  recluse 
who  burned  unread  a  package  of  letters  from  his  family 
containing  the  first  news  that  he  had  had  of  them  for  fifteen 
years,  of  the  hermit  who  ate  but  one  meal  a  week  for  thirty 
years,  or  of  the  grazing  monks  who  lived  on  the  grass  of  the 
fields  a  la  Nebuchadnezzar. 

The  movement  started  in  Egypt,  where  Antony  was  the 
first  noted  hermit  and  where  Pachomius  established  some 
Egyptian  of  the  earliest  Christian  monasteries.  Antony 
monachism  ^^  twenty  sold  the  property  which  his  parents 
had  left  him,  distributed  the  proceeds  to  the  poor,  and  spent 
the  remaining  eighty-five  years  of  his  life  as  a  hermit  —  the 
last  fifty  in  a  mountain  three  days'  journey  beyond  the  Nile 
in  order  to  escape  from  his  throngs  of  admirers.  Pachomius 
founded  ten  monasteries,  each  of  about  three  hundred 
inmates.  The  monks  labored  at  different  trades,  such  as 
carpenter,  tanner,  smith,  cobbler,  tailor,  as  well  as  in  the 
kitchen  and  fields  of  the  monastery.  They  learned  the  Bible 
by  heart  and  held  four  daily  religious  services.  They  lived 
in  individual  cells  and  had  their  meals  at  different  hours. 
The  Rule  of  Pachomius  strictly  prohibited  all  ablutions 
except  in  case  of  sickness. 


THE   CITY  OF   GOD  iii 

The  movement  spread  before  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century  into  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Armenia,  and  Persia; 
and  St.  Basil  introduced  it  among  the  Greeks.  Spread  in 
Symeon  Stylites  in  Syria  led  a  life  like  that  of  an  ^^^  ^^^^ 
Indian  fakir,  spending  thirty-seven  years  on  top  of  a  pillar 
which  was  gradually  raised  from  six  to  sixty  feet  in  height. 
He  was  always  covered  with  vermin,  but  took  some  exercise 
by  bending  his  forehead  until  it  touched  his  feet,  a  process 
which  he  would  repeat  so  many  successive  times  that 
observers  lost  count.  Basil,  on  the  other  hand,  organized 
communities  of  monks  and  gave  them  a  mofe  specific  rule 
to  live  by  than  that  of  Pachomius.  Some  of  the  Greek  mon- 
asteries founded  then  still  survive  to-day,  isolated  from  the 
world  on  steep  crags  to  which  one  can  gain  access  only  by 
climbing  long  rope  ladders  or  by  being  drawn  up  in  a  basket, 
and  in  them  the  monks  still  live  much  the  same  life  as  their 
predecessors  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  hundred  years  ago. 

Athanasius,  the  great  opponent  of  the  Arian  heresy,  is 
also  credited  -with  the  introduction  of  monasticism  in  the 
West.  Later  St.  Jerome  was  a  great  advocate  of  Western 
the  ascetic  life.  By  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  monasticism 
monasteries  and  nunneries  were  numerous  in  Italy.  In  Gaul 
the  movement  was  spread  by  the  fame  of  St.  Martin  of 
Tours,  and  by  the  labor  of  Cassian  at  Marseilles  after  410, 
where  his  two  monasteries  contained  over  five  thousand 
monks  and  nuns,  while  his  Institutes  and  Conferences  were 
influential  books  on  the  subject.  The  missionaries,  St. 
Patrick  and  St.  Severinus,  carried  monasticism  to  Ireland 
and  Noricum ;  but  in  Spain  and  North  Africa  the  movement 
seems  to  have  been  checked  by  the  Visigothic  and  Vandal 
conquests.  In  Ireland  entire  clans  turned  themselves  into 
monastic  communities  with  their  former  chieftains  as 
abbots.  The  word  monk  or  monachos  originally  meant  one 
who  lives  alone,  but  in  the  West  the  community  found  favor 
as  against  the  hermit  life,  and  "monasticism"  is  used  to 
refer  especially  to  life  in  monasteries,  whereas  "monach- 
ism  "  is  a  term  covering  the  life  both  of  hermits  and  of  the 
members  of  monastic  communities. 


112        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  motives  of  those  becoming  monks  soon  ceased  to  be 
entirely  religious.  The  chaotic  conditions  of  the  period  of 
Motives  in  barbarian  invasion,  loss  of  property,  friends,  and 
entering  a  home,  the  impossibility  of  earning  a  livelihood, 
monastery  ^j^^  example  of  Others,  the  comparative  quiet, 
security,  and  perhaps  even  comfort  of  a  monastery  —  all 
these  conditions  might  impel  one  to  withdraw  from  the 
world  which  had  become  so  unattractive.  Jerome  wrote  to 
one  of  his  female  friends  at  the  time  of  the  sack  of  Rome  by 
Alaric,  "Dearest  daughter  in  Christ,  will  you  marry  amid 
such  scenes  as  these?"  In  that  same  year,  when  St.  Patrick 
escaped  from  slavery  in  Ireland  to  the  coasts  of  Gaul,  "he 
journeyed  through  the  desert"  for  four  weeks,  and  was 
doubtless  glad  to  end  his  wanderings  and  find  a  refuge  at 
last  in  a  monastery. 

But  the  city  of  God  had  to  go  on,  though  the  Roman 
Empire  had  become  a  wilderness;  nay,  it  had  to  convert 
Good  and  lands  that  Rome  had  never  conquered.  After  a 
bad  monks  score  of  years  spent  in  Gallic  monasteries  Patrick 
went  back  as  a  missionary  to  the  land  to  which  he  had 
before  been  carried  away  as  a  slave,  and  labored  for  thirty 
years  more  in  spreading  Christianity  through  Ireland.  This 
allows  us  that  monasticism,  was  already  preparing  men  for 
service,  and  not  merely  turning  out  freak  sa,ints  like  Antony 
and  Symeon.  However,  the  chief  advocates  of  monastic 
life  in  that  age  themselves  complain  of  persons  who  want  to 
become  monks,  but  not  to  suffer  hardships,  or  who  wander 
about  doing  as  they  please,  yet  pretending  to  be  ascetics.  In 
short,  monasticism  had  grown  so  popular  that  both  good 
and  bad  were  entering  the  field. 

The  triumph  of  Christianity  hastened  the  decline  of 
classica.1  art,  literature,  philosophy,  and  science,  which  it 
Transition  was  eventually  to  replace  by  a  theology,  a  liter- 
ca°To^Ch?is-  ^ture,  and  an  art  of  its  own.  Many  Christians, 
tian  culture  especially  ascetics,  felt  that  ancient  art  and 
poetry  were  dangerous,  closely  connected  as  they  were  with 
pagan  mythology,  and  appealing  as  they  did  to  the  sense 
of  beauty  and  the  passion  of  love.    Yet  for  a  long  time 


THE   CITY  OF  GOD  113 

Christians  who  had  any  education  had  a  classical  one,  be- 
cause that  was  the  only  one  to  be  had.  The  early  Christians 
did  not  excel  in  art  and  literature,  as  the  lack  of  literary 
style  in  the  Greek  New  Testament  and  the  rude  frescoes  of 
the  Roman  catacombs  show.  Often  Christian  artists  took 
statues  of  Apollo  or  Mithraic  monuments  and  used  them 
with  slight  modifications  for  Christian  personalities  and 
Biblical  scenes.  For  their  church  services  they  adopted, 
not  the  classical  temple,  but  a  style  of  building  sufficiently 
similar  to  the  Roman  forensic  basilica  to  be  called  by  the 
same  name  —  a  rectangular  structure  with  a  central  nave 
higher  in  the  roof  than  the  two  side  aisles  which  paralleled  it 
and  which  were  separated  from  it  by  colonnades  or  arcades. 
At  one  end  was  added  to  the  rectangle  a  semicircular  recess 
for  the  altar,  and  the  interior  unless  small  was  covered  with 
a  flat  wooden  roof.  Gradually  the  Christians  came  to  express 
their  new  faith  in  hymns  differing  in  both  form  and  spirit 
from  classical  verse,  while  Lives  of  the  saints  took  the  place 
of  epics  and  romances.  Symbolism  in  art  and  allegory  in 
literature  were  important  Christian  characteristics,  the 
mysteries  of  the  faith  being  told  in  parable  or  veiled  in  sign 
and  symbol . 

The  voluminous  Christian  writers  of  the  closing  centuries 
of  the  Empire,  like  Jerome  and  Augustine  and  Basil  and 
Ambrose,  are  called  "church  fathers"  because  Church  fa- 
of  their  influence  upon  the  thought  and  usage  of  patrLdc^ 
the  Church  then  and  since.  Jerome  besides  his  literature. 
own  works  made  the  Latin  translation  of  the  Bible,  called 
the  Vulgate,  which  is  still  used  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  The  name,  "church  father,"  is  indeed  applied  to 
all  early  Christian  writers,  including,  after  the  Roman 
Empire  had  fallen,  many  like  Gregory  the  Great,  and  the 
term  "patristic  literature"  is  used  to  cover  their  writings. 
Augustine  once  said,  "The  authority  of  Scripture  is  higher 
than  all  the  efforts  of  the  human  intelligence."  This  was  a 
hard  saying  for  experimental  science  or  rational  philosophy, 
but  represents  fairly  well  the  attitude  of  patristic  literature, 
which  is  based  largely  on  the  Bible  and  is  concerned  chiefly 


114        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

with  religious  matters.  Augustine,  for  example,  had  little 
interest  in  or  knowledge  of  natural  science ;  he  more  often 
picked  up  some  of  its  errors  and  superstitions  than  he  appre- 
ciated its  true  merits  and  purpose.  A  work  like  his  City  oj 
God,  however,  digresses  on  many  miscellaneous  topics,  such 
as  marriage,  the  stature  of  the  antediluvians,  the  age  of 
Methuselah,  Noah's  ark,  monstrous  races  of  men,  the  an- 
tipodes, Hebrew  the  original  language  of  the  human  race, 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  human  transformations  into 
animals,  the  Erythraean  sibyl,  whether  Hebrew  learning  is 
older  than  Egyptian,  early  Christian  persecutions,  torture, 
society,  international  law,  and  what  costume  a  Christian 
may  wear.  From  such  passages  a  reader  could  gather  con- 
siderable information  or  misinformation  without  having  to 
read  classical  authors.  And  on  almost  any  page  of  The 
City  of  God  could  be  found  a  quotation  from  Vergil,  although 
Augustine  at  times  had  conscientious  scruples  about  his 
fondness  for  the  great  Latin  poet. 

In  short,  while  Christianity  turned  its  back  upon  much  in 
classical  civilization,  it  also  retained  a  considerable  amount 
The  classical  of  ancient  culture  into  the  Middle  Ages.  This 
heritage  residue    has    well    been    called    "the    classical 

heritage."  We  must  keep  in  mind,  however,  that  it  was  the 
last  and  most  threadbare  and  decaying  stage  of  classical 
culture  that  most  influenced  early  medieval  Christian  so- 
ciety. But  the  Latin  language  was  to  be  preserved  in  writ- 
ings by  the  clergy  and  some  of  the  Latin  literature  was 
still  read.  Greek  philosophy  had  greatly  influenced  Chris- 
tian theology  already,  and  there  were  survivals  from  pagan 
mythology  and  festivals  in  the  legends  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Church.  The  administrative  divisions  of  the  Roman 
Empire  had  been  closely  copied  in  the  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation. When  Valens  divided  Cappadocia  into  two  provinces 
in  372,  it  meant  that  there  would  henceforth  have  to  be 
two  archbishops  there  instead  of  one;  and  in  451  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon  definitely  ruled  that  every  town  which  the 
emperor  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  city  thereby  acquired  the 
right  to  a  bishop.   In  France  to-day  the  sees  of  bishops  still 


THE   CITY  OF  GOD  115 

correspond  closely  to  the  sites  of  Roman  municipalities, 
where,  before  Christianity  became  the  state  religion,  there 
had  been  a  pagan  flamen  for  the  cult  of  the  emperor.  Not 
only  did  the  Roman  law  Influence  the  decisions  rendered  in 
the  episcopal  courts,  but  its  very  phraseology  can  be  traced 
in  doctrinal  statements  made  by  the  Papacy.  Finally,  the 
city  of  God  kept  for  its  capital  that  same  Rome  which  had 
for  so  long  ruled  the  world. 

Ere  long  Rome  would  resume  its  conquests,  the  Invading 
barbarians  would  yield  to  its  control,  and  the  pope  would 
begin  the  building-up  of  a  power  almost  as  abso-  ^j^   ch  r  h 
lute  and  extensive  as  that  of  the  Roman  emper-  in  medieval 
ors  in  their  prime  —  in  some  respects,  indeed,     '^  "'^^ 
more  extensive  and  absolute.    It  had  been  eight  hundred 
years  between  the  sack  of  early  Rome  by  the  Gauls  and  the 
recent  entry  by  the  German  Alaric.   Over  a  thousand  years 
were  to  elapse  between  the  pontificate  of  Leo  the  Great  and 
that  of  Leo  X,   when   the  first  successful  revolt  against 
Roman    Catholicism    was    initiated    by    another    Teuton, 
Martin  Luther.   The  long  intervening  period  is  that  of  the 
remainder  of  this  book,  and  all  through  those  centuries  we 
shall  constantly  meet  the  power  of  the  city  of  God. 


EXERCISES  AND   READINGS 

Religious  Life  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
T.  R.  Glover,  The  Conflict  of  Religions  in  the  Early  Roman  Empire,  any 
chapter. 

The  Early  Christians. 

Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  chap.  xv. 

1.  Briefly  characterize  Gibbon's  literary  style;  why  do  you  like  or 
dislike  it?    Is  it  a  suitable  style  for  a  historian? 

2.  In  his  treatment  of  the  early  Christians  does  Gibbon  show  a  lack 
of  any  quality  essential  to  a  historian? 

3.  What  is  his  estimate  of  the  morality,  intellectual  caliber,  social 
standing,  and  numbers  of  the  early  Christians?  How  would  or 
does  he  compare  them  in  these  respects  with  the  pagans? 

4.  What  is  his  opinion  concerning  Christian  miracles? 

5.  What  is  his  attitude  toward  classical  men  and  ideals? 


ii6        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Resemblances  between  Stoic  Philosophy  and  Christianity. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  14-17.  Botsford, 
Source-Book  of  Ancient  History,  pp.  510-16. 

Note  those  passages  which  you  think  resemble  Christian  thought 
and  writing,  and  also  any  that  show  a  different  point  of  view. 

Persecution  of  Christians  under  Marcus  Aurelius. 

Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  iv,  no.  i, 
pp.  10-19. 

Rise  of  the  Papacy. 
Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  63-73. 

Church  Fathers. 

The  writings  of  many  church  fathers,  including  Augustine's  City  of 
God,  may  be  found  in  close  English  translation  in  two  sets  of  volumes 
called  The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  and  The  Nicene  and  Post-Nicene 
Fathers.  An  hour  employed  in  turning  the  leaves  of  one  or  two  vol- 
umes and  reading  a  bit  here  and  there  will  be  well  spent.  One  should 
beware  of  the  translation  of  The  City  of  God  in  the  Temple  Classics, 
as  it  omits  a  great  deal,  is  misarranged,  and  numbers  the  books  in- 
correctly. 

Persistence  of  Paganism. 
Dill,  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of  the  Western  Empire,  pp.  3-26, 
"The  Pagan  Aristocracy  and  the  Confusion  of  Parties," 

Early  Christian  Art. 

Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  598-613. 

MONASTICISM   TO  THE   FiFTH   CeNTURY. 

Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  521-32. 

H.  B.  Workman,  The  Evolution  of  the  Monastic  Ideal  (19 13).  Chap,  i, 
"The  Ideas  of  Monasticism"  (pp.  1-74);  chap.  11,  "The  History  of 
Monasticism"  (pp.  75-136).  These  chapters  are  subdivided  into  sec- 
tions, in  case  shorter  readings  are  desired. 

The  Life  of  St.  Severinus,  by  Eugippius,  has  been  recently  translated  into 
English  for  the  first  time  by  G.  W.  Robinson. 


CHAPTER  VII 

GERMAN    KINGDOMS    IN   THE   WEST 

Of  little  account  compared  to  the  Church,  before  which 
opened  so  impressive  a  future,  or  to  the  great  Empire, 
whose  glory  now  lay  in  the  past,  were  the  crude  Qgrman 
kingdoms  of  the  present  that  the  invading  bar-  states  on 
barians  had  founded  in  the  West.  In  many 
respects  these  states  were  mere  fragments  of  the  preceding 
Empire,  going  on  from  the  momentum  which  it  had  given 
them,  rather  than  from  any  political  capacity  or  civilizing 
power  on  the  part  of  the  newcomers.  We  note,  for  one  thing, 
that  all  the  barbarian  kingdoms  which  in  any  true  sense 
could  be  called  states  were  upon  Roman  soil.  Attila's  em- 
pire had  not  been,  but  it  had  lasted  only  so  long  as  life  was 
in  his  commanding  person.  It  took  a  Roman  population 
and  ordered  society,  a  Roman  civil  service,  Roman  walls 
and  roads,  though  they  might  be  in  ruins,  to  keep  any  sort 
of  a  government  going  at  that  time.  Yet  we  note  further 
that  all^ese  states  were  German  kingdoms.  Huns,  Slavs, 
and  Alani  founded  no  states  at  this  time  that  have  left 
records  or  are  worth  studying.  The  Germans  were  farther 
advanced  on  the  road  toward  political  organization  and 
settled  life  than  any  of  the  other  barbarians,  and  showed 
themselves  capable  with  Roman  help  of  keeping  some 
sort  of  government  and  society  in  existence  into  the  sixth 
century. 

The  founding  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  Burgundians  and 
Franks  in  Gaul,  of  the  Visigoths  in  southwestern  Gaul,  of 
the  Vandals  in  Africa,  and  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  Duration 
Italy  have  already  been  narrated  in  the  chapter  ^"^  extent 
on  the  barbarian  invasions.  Only  approximate  dates  can 
be  given  for  the  beginning  of  some  of  these  states,  since  at 
first  they  were  nominally  still  parts  of  the  Empire  and  only 
gradually  asserted  their  complete  independence.    At  their 


ii8      THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

greatest  extent  the  Vandals  held  North  Africa  from  the 
Atlantic  to  Tripoli,  the  Balearic  Isles,  Corsica,  Sardinia, 
and  for  a  brief  interval  Sicily.  Under  their  rule  Rome's 
ancient  enemy,  Carthage,  became  again  the  capital  of  an 
independent  sea  power.  The  varying  extent  of  the  Visi- 
gothic  Kingdom  in  Gaul  has  already  been  set  forth  in 
speaking  of  the  conquests  of  Clovis.  The  West  Goths  began 
to  occupy  Spain  under  their  king,  Euric,  before  484,  but  it 
was  a  long  time  before  their  kingdom  covered  the  entire 
peninsula.  Petty  independent  Roman  rulers  held  out  here 
and  there,  and  the  Suevi  in  the  Northwest  were  not  con- 
quered and  absorbed  until  585.  The  Ostrogothic  Kingdom 
under  Theodoric  included,  besides  Italy  and  Sicily,  Pro- 
vence, the  Dalmatian  coast  of  the  Adriatic,  and  consid- 
erable territory  northeast  of  Italy.  The  Burgundian  and 
Vandal  Kingdoms  ended  in  534;  that  of  the  Ostrogoths  in 
555.  Those  of  the  Visigoths  in  Spain  and  of  the  Franks  in 
Gaul  continued  into  the  next  period.  Burgundy  was  added 
to  the  extensive  Frankish  dominions  in  534,  Provence  in 
536,  and  Bavaria  in  555,  but  Brittany  still  remained  inde- 
pendent. After  Clovis,  the  Frankish  territory  tended  to 
divide  into  three  kingdoms  ruled  by  differeift^members  or 
branches  of  the  royal  family  :^ustrasia  on  both  sides  of  the 
lower  Rhine,  the  original  home  of  the  Franks;  Neustria,  the 
region  centering  about  Soissons  or  Paris  whicntHey  had 
conquered  from  Syagrius;  and  third.  Burgundy^  Aquitania, 
once  the  Gallic  kingdom  of  the  West  Goths,  and  Bavaria 
also  tended  to  break  away  under  separate  rulers.  In  Britain 
the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes  were  devastating,  conquering, 
enslaving,  and  settling  at  this  time,  but  as  yet  they  had 
formed  no  kingdoms  of  any  considerable  size,  but  were 
divided  into  ten  or  a  dozen  little  ones,  of  which  we  have 
almost  no  record.  The  Lombards,  too,  who  did  not  enter 
Italy  until  the  second  half  of  the  sixth  century,  will  come 
into  our  story  later. 

Not  much,  it  is  true,  is  known  of  any  of  these  German 
states.  There  were  hardly  any  contemporary  historical 
writers.  The  Franks  fare  best  in  this  respect  and  almost  our 


GERMAN   KINGDOMS   IN   THE  WEST  119 

only  account  of  them  is  the  crude,  strongly  partisan,  and 
often  sadly  ungrammatical  and  incoherent  chron-    gQ^j-ces 
icle  of  Gregory  of  Tours  (538-594).  For  Theodo-    of  our 
j;ic,  the  East  Goth,  we  have  the  letters  of  his      "°^^  ^^ 
secretary,  Cassiodorus,  who  made  some  pretense  to  learning 
and  literary  style.     Cassiodorus  also  composed  a  history 
of  the  Goths,  now  lost,  but  of  which  some  use  was  made 
by  Jordanes,  who  wrote  a  history  of  the  Goths  later  in 
the  sixth  century,  but  who  was  an  unreliable  lover  of  legend 
with  no  capacity  for  criticism  or  exactness.    Otherwise  we 
have  to  rely  on  incidental  references  to  Western  events  in 
Byzantine  historians  and  on  the  laws  issued  during  this 
period  by  the  German  kings. 

How  large  the  new  German  element  in  the  population 
of  these  kingdoms  was,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Sometimes  the 
invading  armies  were  not  very  large;  Gaiseric,  Population 
for  instance,  is  said  to  have  led  only  eighty  thou-  and  language 
sand  Vandals  into  North  Africa  which  probably  had  a 
population  of  millions.  We  must  remember,  however,  that 
there  were  many  barbarians  scattered  through  the  Empire 
before  this.  Except  in  Britain  and  northeastern  Gaul  the 
language  of  the  invaders  had  little  or  no  abiding  influence. 
The  Salian  Franks  almost  completely  obliterated  Roman 
civilization  and  Christianity  from  the  region  between  the 
Meuse  and  the  Scheldt,  which  they  occupied  in  their  first 
aggressions  against  the  Empire,  and  where  to-day  is  spoken 
a  German  dialect,  Flemish.  The  Ripuarians  also,  in  their 
first  permanent  advance  west  of  the  Rhine,  seem  to  have 
dislodged  Roman  culture  and  the  Christian  religion,  and 
their  southwestern  boundary  at  that  time  coincided  roughly 
with  the  present  limits  of  the  French  and  German  lan- 
guages. The  Alamanni  also  appear  to  have  introduced  a 
permanent  German  element  in  the  population  west  of  the 
Rhine.  Elsewhere  in  Gaul,  and  still  more  in  Italy  and  Spain, 
the  Latin  races  seem  to  have  held  their  own.  The  German 
invaders  usually  became  the  aristocratic,  fighting,  landhold- 
ing  class,  though  some  of  them  dropped  to  a  lower  rank 
in  economic  prosperity  and  in  the  social  scale,  while  many 


120        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  the  old  Roman  senatorial  class  remained  wealthy  and 
powerful.  Our  information  is  vague  as  to  how  much  land 
the  Germans  took  for  themselves,  from  whom  they  took 
it,  and  how  it  was  distributed  among  them. 

The  religion  of  the  Germans  in  all  these  states  except,the 
Prankish  Kingdom  was  either  pagan  or  Arian,  and  the  ver- 

.  .  nacular  language  was  used  in  the  service.   After 

the  conversion  of  Clovis  in  496  the  Franks, 
hitherto  pagan,  became  orthodox  Roman  Catholics.  The 
conquered  population,  however,  was  predominantly  Roman 
Catholic  in  all  the  kingdoms  and  usually  little  effort  was 
made  to  convert  them  to  Arianism.  In  Africa,  however, 
Catholics  were  expelled  wholesale  from  the  two  provinces 
which  the  Vandals  themselves  settled,  and  Theodoric  perse- 
cuted Catholics  fiercely  in  the  last  three  years  of  his  reign 
because  the  Byzantine  emperor  at  that  time  was  ill-treating_ 
the  Ariaffs  in  the  East.  The  German  kings  controlled  the 
calling  of  church  councils  in  their  kingdoms  except  in  Italy, 
where  the  pope  lived,  and  Theodoric  was  careful  not  to 
interfere  much  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Once  he  refused  to 
decide  a  disputed  papal  election,  telling  the  clergy,  "It  is 
your  duty  to  settle  this  question."  Most  of  the  kings,  how- 
ever, were  inclined  to  exert  considerable  control  over  the 
election  of  bishops  within  their  realms.  The  Visigothic 
Kingdom  became  Roman  Catholic  toward  the  close  of  the 
sixth  century. 

The  conquest  of  their  new  homes  had  been  made  possible 

for  the  invaders  by  entrusting  the  military  leadership  to 

some  one  man  and  by  combining  into  larger 

Kingship  .  .  1         1  1  '1     1 

aggregations  of  peoples  than  the  tribal  organiza- 
tions of  the  early  Germans.  When  they  had  settled  down 
on  the  new  soil,  it  depended  largely  on  the  personality  of 
the  leader  whether  he  could  convert  his  office  into  a  perma- 
nent, absolute,  territorial  monarchy,  or  whether  the  king- 
ship would  dwindle  before  the  local  independence  of  the 
other  great  landowners  —  the  king,  of  course,  took  a  lion's 
share  of  confiscated  lands.  Gaiseric,  who  founded  the  Vandal 
state  in  Africa  and  continued  to  rule  it  vigorously  until  477, 


GERMAN   KINGDOMS   IN   THE  WEST  121 

established  a  truly  absolute  monarchy  and  alone  among  the 
German  monarchs  was  strong  enough  to  establish  a  direct 
male  hereditary  succession  to  the  throne.  He  also  forced 
the  surrounding  Moorish  tribes  to  remain  quiet,  although 
they  had  previously  made  the  Roman  Empire  a  deal  of 
trouble  and  were  to  resume  their  raids  after  his  death. 
Theodoric,  the  East  Goth,  whom  we  have  already  had 
occasion  to  mention  many  times,  was  another  dominant 
personality  who  wisely  regulated  affairs,  not  only  in  his 
own  kingdom,  but  in  some  of  the  neighboring  states,  and 
who  made  marriage  alliances  with  all  four  of  the  leading 
German  states  of  his  time,  Vandals,  Visigoths,  Franks,  and 
Burgundians.  Cjovis  was  another  great  king  who,  though 
inferior  to  Theodoric  as  a  statesman,  built  up  the  Prankish 
power  by  his  conquests.  That  power,  however,  was^dimin- 
ished  under  his  successors  by  the  Prankish  practice  of  equal 
division  of  the  kingdom  among  all  the  sons  of  the  previous 
ruler,  who  then  usually  fought  and  plotted  against  one 
another,  or  were  frequently  assassinated  by  some  one  else. 
One  poor  king  made  a  public  speech  requesting  intending 
assassins  kindly  to  postpone  their  attacks  for  two  or  three 
years  longer,  until  there  should  be  some  one  old  enough  to 
succeed  him.  Among  the  Visigoths,  too,  especially  after 
the  transfer  of  their  rule  to  Spain,  kings  were  murdered 
at  a  rapid  rate  and  the  unruly  Gothic  nobles  were  very 
obstreperous,  although  the  monarchs  tried  to  discourage 
conspiracies  by  atrociously  cruel  punishments. 

These  kings  were  usually  glad  to  continue  such  Roman 
administrative  machinery  as  they  found  still  in  existence. 
The  Vandals  kept  the  old  divisions  into  provinces  Retgntion  of 
and  left  many  important  offices  in  the  hands  of  Roman  ad- 

T,  T-«  •    •       i»   •  1  r    ministration 

Romans.  Roman  municipalities  and  governors  01 
provinces  continued  in  southwestern  Gaul  under  Visigothic 
rule.  Theodoric  was  deferential  to  the  Roman  senate,  still 
appointed  consuls,  and  at  his  palace  at  Ravenna  had  a 
court  much  like  that  of  Constantinople.  The  Prankish 
Kingdom,  which  developed  later  than  the  others,  retained 
less  of  Roman  methods  of  government.   As  a  rule  taxation, 


122        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

to  which  the  Germans  themselves  were  not  accustomed, 
was  not  as  oppressive  in  their  kingdoms  as  in  the  late 
Empire.  When  the  Byzantine  emperor  reconquered  North 
Africa,  the  overtaxed  peasants  sighed  for  the  easier  days 
of  Vandal  rule. 

The  German  invaders  retained  their  own  laws  and  courts, 
and  their  customs  were  now  for  the  first  time  written  down 
—  in  Latin.  The  Roman  population  in  cases  be- 
tween themselves  were  allowed  the  benefit  of 
their  own  Roman  law  to  which  they  were  accustomed  and 
the  German  king  usually  had  a  statement  of  it  made  in 
writing  also  —  generally  a  crude,  meager  code  compared  to 
the  masterpieces  of  Roman  jurisprudence  in  the  days  of 
Ulpian,  Paulus,  and  Papinian.  Euric  (466-484),  the  most 
notable  king  of  the  V^est  Goths  since  Alaric  and  under 
whom  their  expansion  in  Gaul  reached  its  height  and  their 
conquest  of  Spain  was  begun,  published  the  laws  of  the 
Visigoths,  our  earliest  fragments  of  German  legislation. 
His  son,  Alaric  II,  just  before  he  was  conquered  and  slain 
by  Clovis,  had  issued  a  compilation  of  Roman  law  for  the 
use  of  his  Latin  subjects  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  which  to-day 
is  known  as  the  Breviary  of  Alaric.  The  Franks  adopted  it 
for  their  Gallo-Roman  subjects.  The  Salic  law  was  written 
down  in  Clovis's  reign  and  the  customs  of  the  Ripuarian 
Franks  somewhat  later.  About  500,  King  Gundobad  pub- 
lished a  code  of  laws  for  both  Burgundians  and  Romans, 
but  later  added  a  special  code  for  Romans  only.  About 
the  same  time  in  Italy  appeared  the  Edict  of  Theodoric,  a 
brief  compilation  of  Roman  law.  No  code  of  Vandal  law 
is  extant,  but  we  know  of  particular  legislation  by  the 
kings,  who  also  frequently  interfered  in  legal  proceedings. 
The  Anglo-Saxons  in  Britain  and  the  Lombards  in  Italy 
committed  their  laws  to  writing  at  the  end  of  the  sixth 
and  during  the  seventh  century,  while  the  customs  of  the 
Alamanni,  Thuringians,  Bavarians,  and  Saxons  were  not 
reduced  to  writing  until  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries. 
In  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  Romans  and  West 
Goths  in  Spain  were  brought  under  one  system  of  law  at 


GERMAN   KINGDOMS   IN   THE  WEST  123 

just  about  the  time  that  they  were  permitted  to  intermarry. 
Under  this  law  of  Chindaswind  the  court  organization  and 
procedure  were  Roman  rather  than  German.  Documentary 
evidence  was  much  used  and  the  old  German  methods  of 
proof  were  not  recognized.  Torture  was  employed  as  in  the 
late  Roman  Empire. 

Everywhere  economic  life  tended  more  and  more  to  be- 
come purely  agricultural.  Grass  grew  in  many  erstwhile 
busy  city  streets  and  ruins  of  once  thickly  peo-  Economic 
pled  quarters  were  now  hidden  by  vegetable  gar-  '"^ 
dens  and  vineyards.  Gradually  the  municipal  governing 
bodies  disappeared  and  the  bishop  was  alone  left  to  look 
after  the  public  welfare.  Some  town  sites  were  entirely 
abandoned.  In  the  country  the  estate  of  the  great  landholder 
was  as  prevalent  as  ever.  Probably  for  a  time  the  number  of 
small  landowners  was  increased  by  the  allotment  of  lands 
to  the  conquering  barbarians,  for  it  scarcely  seems  as  if  all 
their  warriors  could  have  received  large  estates.  But  these 
small  farmers  were  unable  to  hold  their  own  for  long,  and 
presently  began  to  "commend"  themselves  to  some  power- 
ful local  magnate.  On  the  whole  the  wars  and  lack  of  strong 
government  had  the  effect  of  increasing  the  amount  of  serf- 
dom and,  at  least  among  the  conquering  Franks,  the  num- 
ber of  slaves.  The  monastery  was  a  local  center  of  economic 
activity  of  which  we  shall  treat  In  the  ninth  chapter. 

At  first  there  was  a  considerable  social  distinction  be- 
tween German  and  Roman.  Intermarriage  was  forbidden 
except  among  the  Franks  and,  after  652,  among  „  . 
the  West  Goths.  But  among  the  Franks  the 
Salic  law  fixed  the  Wergeld  of  a  Frank  at  twice  that  of  a 
Roman.  The  Vandals  regarded  the  North  Africans  as  a 
conquered  population  without  rights;  the  East  and  West 
Goths  treated  the  Romans  more  as  equals.  About  the  king 
in  each  state  centered  a  new  nobility  who  derived  their 
privileges  from  him  as  a  reward  for  services  rendered. 
Otherwise  the  old  social  divisions  among  the  Germans  and 
Romans  were  continued.  The  Jews,  whom  the  Emperor 
Theodosius  in  388  had  forbidden  to  marry  Christians,  were 


124        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

still  a  social  problem.  After  the  Visigothic  Kingdom  became 
Catholic,  they  were  persecuted  in  Spain  through  a  long 
period.  Theodoric  in  Italy  and  the  Prankish  rulers  in 
Gaul,  where  the  Jews  had  communities,  generally  protected 
them. 

Some  classical  culture,  like  Roman  administration  and 
law,  still  continued.  The  poet,  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  and 
Latin  Other  representatives  of  the  last  period  of  Latin 

literature  literature  in  Gaul  found  a  refuge  at  the  Visigothic 
court.  Even  in  the  last  years  of  Vandal  rule  in  Africa  there 
was  a  considerable  literary  output.  Under  Theodoric  in 
Italy  flourished  Cassiodorus  and  Boethius.  Besides  his  let- 
ters and  Gothic  history  the  former  wrote  some  extremely 
brief  textbooks  concerning  the  seven  liberal  arts  —  gram- 
mar, rhetoric,  and  logic,  arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and 
astronomy.  The  chief  value  of  these  manuals,  whose  facts 
are  poorly  selected  and  whose  style  is  stilted  and  affected, 
is  that  they  show  how  little  one  needed  to  know  to  be 
considered  educated  in  that  barbarous  period.  Boethius, 
in  his  well-known  work.  The  Consolation  of  Philosophy, 
"written  in  sound,  pure  Latin  prose  with  occasional  inter- 
ludes of  verse,"  shows  himself  a  much  more  talented  writer 
with  something  still  of  true  classical  style. 

Boethius  held  a  high  political  post  under  Theodoric. 
When  a  man  of  senatorial  rank  was  accused  of  treasonable 
intrigues  with  Constantinople,  Boethius  spoke 
boldly  on  his  behalf.  Thereupon  Theodoric  cast 
Boethius  into  prison,  and  there,  while  awaiting  trial,  he  is 
supposed  to  have  written  The  Consolation  of  Philosophy. 
He  tells  us  that  the  real  reason  for  the  charges  against 
him  was  the  hatred  which  he  had  aroused  by  protecting 
the  lands  of  the  Roman  provincials  against  the  greed  of 
the  Goths.  After  a  short  trial  he  was  tortured  by  twisting 
a  cord  bound  tightly  about  his  head,  and  finally  he  was 
killed  with  a  blow  from  a  club.  He  was  regarded  as  a  Chris- 
tian during  the  Middle  Ages,  when  a  work  on  the  Trinity 
directed  against  the  Arians  was  attributed  to  him.  But  there 
is  no  Christian  theology  in  The  Consolation  of  Philosophy, 


GERMAN   KINGDOMS   IN   THE  WEST  125 

which  does  not  mention  Christ  or  the  hope  of  immortality, 
as  one  would  expect  a  Christian  facing  death  to  do.  Virtue 
and  philosophy  are  its  main  themes.  But  if  the  book  shows 
the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  Christian  and  pagan  as  late 
as  the  early  sixth  century,  its  reception  later  shows  that 
medieval  Christianity  was  broad  enough  to  embrace  such 
a  work  as  its  own.  Boethius  was  a  great  name  in  the  Middle 
Ages  for  another  reason,  his  Latin  translations  of  Aristotle's 
treatises  on  logic  and  his  own  writings  in  such  fields  as 
arithmetic  and  music.  He  may  be  considered,  then,  the 
last  great  writer  and  the  last  prominent  scholar  of  the 
ancient  world  in  the  West,  as  well  as  a  last  representative 
of  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  senate  and  the  rights  of  the 
Roman  people. 

On  through  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  literature 
and  learning  continued  their  decline  in  Gaul  under  the 
Merovingian  kings,  as  the  successors  of  Clovis  Isidore  of 
were  called,  and  in  Spain  under  the  Visigoths.  Seville 
Gregory  of  Tours,  whose  history  has  already  been  de- 
scribed, was  the  leading  writer  of  this  period  in  the  one 
country  and  Isidore  of  Seville  in  the  other.  Isidore's  chief 
work  is  his  Etymologies  (622-623),  ^  jejune  encyclopaedia  in 
one  volume.  It  is  a  list  of  Latin  words,  with  far-fetched  and 
usually  incorrect  guesses  at  their  etymology,  and  then  some 
elaboration  of  their  meaning,  which  generally  takes  the 
form  of  a  stringing  together  of  excerpts  from  earlier  authors. 
For  instance,  Isidore  says  that  the  vulture  gets  its  name 
from  its  slow  flight  {a  volatu  tarda),  and  that  horses  are 
called  equine  {equi)  because  those  harnessed  together  in 
spans  are  equal,  being  a  pair  and  maintaining  the  same  gait. 
Dry  and  ridiculous  by  turns  as  this  meager  display  of  knowl- 
edge seems  to  the  modern  reader,  it  was  superior  to  Cassio- 
dorus'  manuals  and  was  the  leading  work  of  erudition 
produced  for  some  centuries  in  the  West.  Almost  every 
monastic  library  contained  a  copy  of  it. 

There  seems  to  have  been  little  art  in  these  German 
states  except  for  armor,  jewelry,  and  the  work  of  the 
goldsmith.  Nothing  in  a  historical  museum  is  more  tedious 


126        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

to  look  at  than  a  Merovingian  monument,  which  usually 
takes   the   form  of  a  shapeless  stone  with   some   obliter- 
ated sculpture  of  the  rudest  sort.    We  hear  of 

Art 

some  building,  but  almost  none  of  it  was  of 
sufficient  beauty  or  durability  to  be  preserved  to  us  through 
the  ages.  In  Spain,  for  instance,  where  the  Visigoths  ruled 
for  more  than  "two  hundred  years,  there  is  not  a  single 
building  left  to  illustrate  their  architecture,  just  as  scarcely 
a  word  in  the  Spanish  language  can  be  traced  back  to 
their  tongue.  Theodoric  probably  did  the  most  building  in 
Italy,  and  his  tomb  and  a  few  bits  of  his  palace  and  some 
Arian  ecclesiastical  edifices  of  his  reign  may  still  be  seen 
at  Ravenna.  These  last,  however,  may  be  more  appropri- 
ately considered  in  the  next  chapter  along  with  Byzantine 
art.  Most  of  his  structures  were  composed  of  fragments 
from  ruined  buildings,  and  a  bishop  in  an  oration  in  his 
praise  declared,  in  the  usual  stilted  language  of  panegyric, 
"He  rejuvenated  Rome  and  Italy  in  their  hideous  old  age 
by  amputating  their  mutilated  members."  New  public 
baths  were  built  in  Africa  by  the  Vandal  kings.  Indeed,  the 
destruction  of  Roman  civilization  in  Africa  is  not  to  be  laid 
to  the  charge  of  the  Vandals,  but  rather  to  the  wild  Moorish 
tribes  of  the  desert. 

The  old  Roman  amusements  and  popular  customs,  even 
when  expensive,  perhaps  outlived  the  loftier  elements  in 
classical  culture.  The  Vandal  warriors  by  the 
sixth  century  had  surrendered  to  the  attractions 
of  Roman  luxury  in  food,  clothing,  and  love-making.  They 
lived  in  palaces  and  often  attended  the  theater.  The  mob 
of  Rome  still  had  to  have  its  "bread  and  circuses"  even 
under  the  Ostrogoths.  Theodoric  continued  the  distribu- 
tion of  grain  to  the  city  populace,  maintained  the  chariot 
races  and  the  pantomime,  and  is  praised  by  the  aforesaid 
bishop  and  by  Cassiodorus,  both  pious  Christians,  for  hav- 
ing revived  gladiatorial  combats.  We  also  hear  of  the  Franks 
holding  games  in  the  arena  at  Aries  as  late  as  the  sixth 
century. 


GERMAN   KINGDOMS   IN   THE   WEST  127 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

German  Kingdoms  in  the  West:  Map  Exercise. 

Indicate  upon  an  outline  map  all   the  kingdoms  and  lesser  regions 
mentioned  in  the  second  paragraph  of  this  chapter. 

The  Salic  Law. 

E.  F.  Henderson,  Select  Historical  Documents  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp. 

176-89. 
Ogg,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  61-67. 
Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  16-26. 
The  extracts  given  by  Henderson  are  the  fullest  and  most  inter- 
esting,  but  the  other  two  works  contain  explanatory  notes  which 
Henderson  lacks. 

In  doing  the  following  exercise  upon  the  Salic  Law,  use  Henderson's 
text,  supplementing  it  by  reference  to  Ogg:  — 

1.  What  other  name  is  given  to  the  hundred  court? 

2.  What  sort  of  penalty  is  imposed  for  almost  every  offense?   Find 
one  exception. 

3.  What  social  classes  are  distinguished? 

4.  Have  the  old  Roman  population  equal  rights  before  the  law  with 
the  Franks? 

5.  Find  some  examples  of  the  principle  of  self-help  and  others  of 
quaint  customary  legal  formalities. 

6.  Prove  from  the  laws  that  economic  life  at  this  period  is  almost 
purely  agricultural. 

7.  What  laws  show  that  warfare  is  a  common  occupation? 

8.  What  laws  indicate  the  prevalence  of  superstition  and  magic? 

9.  What  do  these  laws  show  concerning  the  royal  power? 

10.  Which  law  suggests  the  existence  of  a  self-governing  village 
community? 

Germans  in  the  Roman  Empire. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  50-59. 

The  Vandals  in  Africa. 

Bouchier,  Roman  Africa,  pp.  105-11. 
Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  316-22. 

The  Career  of  Brunhilda,  a  Merovingian  Queen. 
Oman,  The  Dark  Ages,  pp.  158-76. 
Kitchin,  History  of  France,  vol.  i,  pp.  87-93. 

Theodoric,  King  of  Italy. 

Oman,  The  Dark  Ages,  pp.  19-32  (chap.  ii). 

Selections  from  Gregory  of  Tours. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  27-37. 
Ogg,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  47-59. 

Gregory  of  Tours,  History  of  the  Franks,  and  Isidore  of  Seville, 
Etymologies,  have  recently  been  translated  into  English  by  E.  Brehaut; 
and  the  Gothic  History  of  Jordanes,  by  C.  C.  Mierow. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

JUSTINIAN   AND   THE    BYZANTINE   EMPIRE 

The  Vandal  and  Ostrogothic  Kingdoms  in  Africa  and 
Italy  were  overthrown  in  534  and  555  by  generals  and 
Conditions  armies  of  the  Byzantine  emperor,  who  also 
before  ^^'  reconquered  some  of  the  Spanish  coast  from  the 
Justinian  Visigoths.  We  therefore  turn  in  this  chapter  to 
Constantinople  and  to  the  most  famous  of  all  its  rulers, 
Justinian.  In  518  had  ended  the  troubled  reign  of  Anasta- 
sius,  filled  with  a  succession  of  rebellions  at  home  and  wars 
abroad,  riots  in  Constantinople,  revolts  of  the  Isaurians,  bar- 
barian raids  in  the  European  provinces,  war  with  Persia  in 
the  East,  a  breach  with  the  Papacy,  and  religious  opposition 
among  the  emperor's  own  subjects  because  of  his  Mono- 
physitism.  The  Monophy sites  were  those  who  insisted  that 
Christ  had  only  one  nature,  the  divine.  This  view  was 
widespread  in  the  East  and  the  cause  of  many  popular  dis- 
turbances, since  in  the  East  even  the  lowest  classes  took 
sides  in  theological  disputes.  Anastasius,  however,  had  left 
a  well-filled  treasury  behind  him. 

Justin,  an  aged  soldier  and  orthodox  Christian,  —  judged 
by  papal  standards,  —  now  came  to  the  throne.  But  the 
Justin  and  old  man  could  scarcely  read,  had  to  use  a  stencil 
(5i*8-'527-  *o  ^^S^  h^^  name,  and  knew  little  of  politics. 
565)  The  real  ruler  during  the  nine  years  of  Justin's 

reign  and  then  for  thirty-eight  years  longer  in  his  own  name 
was  Justinian,  a  nephew  of  Justin,  who  had  received  a 
broad  education,  was  trained  in  politics,  and  in  518  was 
already  thirty-six  years  old.  Indeed,  the  great  historian, 
Gibbon,  said  that  Justinian  "was  never  young."  He  lived 
to  be  eighty-three.  He  was  a  man  of  somewhat  cold  and 
ascetic  temperament,  of  simple  manners  and  abstemious 
habits.    "His  stature,"  says  a  contemporary,  "was  neither 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     129 

too  great  nor  too  little,  well  proportioned  and  rather  in- 
clined to  be  fat;  his  face  was  round  and  comely;  his  com- 
plexion was  fresh,  and  sometimes  when  he  had  eaten  nothing 
for  two  days."  He  had  the  love  of  order  and  system,  and 
the  enormous  capacity  for  details  which  has  marked  all 
great  administrators,  and,  like  Napoleon,  he  could  do  with 
very  little  sleep  and  hated  to  be  idle.  He  gave  his  personal 
attention  to  every  department  of  government,  and  also 
took  a  keen  interest  in  theology.  He  had  great  power  of 
self-control,  was  expert  in  hiding  his  feelings  and  intentions, 
and  outwardly  always  gave  the  impression  of  great  strength 
and  firmness  of  purpose.  We  are  told,  however,  that  his 
mind  sometimes  vacillated  in  critical  moments,  and  he  was 
perhaps  at  heart  more  a  man  of  intellect  than  of  action.  His 
actions  were  guided  in  the  main,  however,  by  definite  poli- 
cies and  fixed  principles,  and  it  was  only  stress  of  untoward 
circumstance  that  made  him  hesitate.  From  the  start  he 
aimed  to  be  a  great  emperor  and  he  succeeded.  In  a  church 
in  that  same  city  of  Ravenna,  where  are  the  tombs  of  Galla  '^^ 
Placidia  and  of  Theodoric,  the  East  Goth,  and  which  Jus- 
tinian reconquered  from  the  barbarians,  are  still  to  be  seen 
in  resplendent  mosaic  the  of^cial  portraits,  made  during 
the  course  of  his  reign,  of  the  "Lord  Justinian"  himself  and 
of  his  empress,  Theodora. 

For  the  great  achievements  which  Justinian  planned  he 
needed  a  number  of  able  assistants,  and  he  was  either  for- 
tunate enough  or,  more  likely,  wise  enough  to    Justinian's 
find  them.   In  Belisarius  and  the  eunuch,  Narses,    able 
he  had  two  remarkable  generals.    Anthemius  of 
Tralles  was  the  architect  who  had  charge  of  his  public 
buildings.    His  two  chief  ministers  were  the  learned  jurist, 
Tribonian,  who  executed  the  great  legal  work  of  the  reign, 
and  John  of  Cappadocia,  an  able  administrator  and  re- 
sourceful financier.    John  was  accused,  however,  of  resort- 
ing to  cruel  extortion  to  supply  Justinian  with  the  funds 
needed  for  his  great  enterprises,  and  Tribonian  was  charged 
with  corruption  and  sale  of  justice.   Justinian  was  watchful, 
if  not  suspicious  and  jealous,  of  even  his  most  successful 


I30        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

subordinates.  Finally  among  his  chief  helpers  the  remark- 
able empress,  Theodora,  should  not  be  forgotten. 

The  reign  was  also  graced  by  an  eminent  historian, 
Procopius,  the_secretary  of  Belisarius,  whose  works  on  the 
Procopius  wars  and  the  buildings  of  Justinian  have  con- 
^fret  tributed  to  his  fame.    Procopius,  however,  also__ 

History  wrote  a  venomous  Secret  History,  in  which  he 

depicted  Justinian  as  a  fiend  incarnate  and  his  reign  as  a 
terrible  orgy  of  oppression.  The  wild  exaggeration  of  this 
work  may  be  seen  in  such  statements  as  that  "more  mur- 
ders were  committed  by  Justinian's  order  or  permission 
than  in  all  the  ages  before  him,"  and  that  "he  had  no  money 
himself  and  would  suffer  no  one  else  to  have  any."  The 
wives  of  both  Belisarius  and  Justinian  are  represented  as 
women  of  the  worst  type.  Amid  all  the  slander,  however,  a 
certain  amount  of  probable  fact  can  be  selected. 

Theodora  is  said  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  a  wild- 
beast  keeper  at  the  Hippodrome  and  was  for  a  time  a  very 
The  Empress  popular  and  fast  young  actress  in  the  pantomime 
Theodora  ^^  Constantinople.  After  questionable  adven- 
tures in  the  East  she  returned  to  the  capital  a  reformed 
character.  Justinian  now  fell  in  love  with  her,  married  her 
in  523,  and  she  shared  the  imperial  throne  with  him  from 
527  to  548,  during  which  time  she  is  supposed  to  have 
exerted  a  vast  influence  over  him  in  political  and  religious 
matters.  Procopius  admits  that  she  "had  an  excellent  face, 
and  though  her  person  was  small,  yet  she  was  exceedingly 
well  shaped;  her  complexion  was  neither  too  white  nor  too 
red;  her  eyes  were  extremely  quick,  and  she  cast  them  a 
thousand  ways  at  once."  According  to  Procopius,  Justinian 
and  Theodora  made  it  a  regular  policy  to  pretend  to  disagree 
in  matters  of  state  and  to  side  with  different  parties,  while 
really  they  always  worked  hand  in  glove  with  each  other, 
betrayed  their  associates  freely  to  each  other,  and  thus 
learned  the  secrets  of  their  enemies.  Indeed,  they  seem  to 
have  been  as  well  adapted  to  each  other  as  the  famous  Jack 
Spratt  and  his  wife.  While  the  wakeful  Justinian  walked 
the  palace  all  night,  the  drowsy  Theodora  slept  on  half 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     131 

through  the  day ;  he  was  easy  to  see,  she  was  very  inaccessi- 
ble; he  merely  touched  his  food  and  barely  sipped  his  wine, 
she  interrupted  her  slumbers  to  have  a  bath  and  breakfast 
and  then  went  back  to  bed  again,  and  "at  dinner  and  at 
supper  there  was  no  sort  of  meat  but  she  would  have  and 
that  in  abundance." 

The  chief  things  that  Justinian  seems  to  have  aimed  to 
bring  about  were  as  follows:  (i)  to  make  the  power  of  the 
emperor  absolute;  (2)  to  end  the  schism  with  the  Policies  of 
Papacy  and  to  maintain  ecclesiastical  unity  and  J'^stiman 
orthodoxy;  (3)  to  reconquer  the  lost  possessions  of  the 
Empire  in  the  West  and  restore  the  ancient  Roman  Empire 
"to  the  limits  of  the  two  oceans";  (4)  to  insure  the  existing 
Empire  from  attack  by  skillful  diplomacy  with  the.barbari- 
ans,  by  constructing  and  repairing  numerous  fortifications 
in  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  throughout  the  East,  and  by 
avoiding  war  with  Persia  and  the  barbarians  as  far  as  pos- 
sible; (5)  to  reform  the  imperial  administration  and  secure 
good  government;  (6)  to  finish  the  work  which  Theodo- 
sius  II  had  barely  begun  in  his  Code  of  438,  and  to  preserve 
the  Roman  law  in  a  permanent  and  consistent  form ;  (7)  to 
be  a  great  builder  like  the  emperors  of  old. 

Justinian  made  the  position  of  the  emperor  even  loftier 
than  it  had  ever  been  before.  He  outdid  Diocletian  in  the 
luxury  of  his  court,  in  the  elaborateness  of  cere-  His 
monial,  and  in  the  use  of  high-sounding  titles,  absolutism 
His  state  papers  are  couched  in  imperious  and  pretentious 
language.  In  his  presence  men  had  to  prostrate  themselves 
and  kiss  the  imperial  feet  of  the  "  Lord  Justinian."  Yet  even 
the  Secret  History  admits  that  he  was  very  accessible,  that 
no  man  was  ever  denied  an  audience  by  him,  and  that  he 
received  every  one  courteously.  Indeed,  so  many  matters 
were  taken  over  by  the  central  government  and  so  much 
more  business  than  before  was  transacted  at  his  court  that 
it  was  always  thronged. 

Like  all  the  Byzantine  emperors,  however,  Justinian  had 
the  turbulent  populace  of  Constantinople  to  reckon  with. 
In  52 1,  Justin  spent  the  equivalent  of  over  a  million  dol- 


132        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

lars  in  shows  for  the  people.  Anastasius  had  abolished  hu- 
The  sports  man  combats  with  wild  beasts,  but  they  were 
o"the^^'^'°"^  now  once  more  permitted.  Even  more  than  such 
Hippodrome  combats,  however,  or  than  going  to  the  theaters, 
of  which  one  bore  the  sinister  name,  "The  Harlots,"  the 
favorite  pastime  of  Constantinople  was  the  exciting  four- 
horse  chariot-races  of  the  circus,  which  were  held,  usually 
on  Sunday,  in  the  great  Hippodrome  seating  thirty  thou- 
sand men  —  for  women  did  not  attend.  The  spectators 
took  sides  according  to  the  colors  worn  by  their  favorite 
charioteers,  and  occupied  blocks  of  seats  reserved  for  their 
respective  colors.  Thus  arose  the  two  great  parties  of 
Greens  and  Blues,  who  divided  the  city  and  who  often  car- 
ried their  rivalry  to  the  point  of  animosity  and  blows.  These 
two  factions  could,  at  least  on  occasion,  become  political 
parties.  Anastasius  had  favored  the  Greens.  Justinian  and 
Theodora  adhered  to  the  Blues.  Triumphal  processions 
were  held  in  the  Hippodrome;  also  the  emperor  was  a 
frequent  and  interested  spectator  of  the  races;  and  the 
people  thus  had  a  chance  upon  this  informal  occasion  to 
let  him  know  how  they  felt.  Usually  he  was  applauded, 
but  sometimes  was  hissed,  "boo-ed,"  or  made  the  target  of 
saucy  remarks  and  of  complaints  about  the  conduct  of  the 
government. 

Sometimes  a  serious  riot  occurred,  if  not  in  the  Hippo- 
drome during  the  performance,  then  afterwards  in  the 
The  Nika  Streets.  In  532,  both  Greens  and  Blues  became 
revolt  offended  at  the  city  prefect,  and  then  demanded 

the  dismissal  of  both  Tribonian  and  John  of  Cappadocia, 
and  were  not  satisfied  even  with  that.  When  troops  were^ 
sent  against  them,  they  drove  the  soldiers  back  to  the 
imperial  palace  and  set  the  city  on  fire.  Justinian  made  a 
personal  appeal  to  them  in  the  Hippodrome,  but  the  fren- 
zied crowd  refused  to  accept  his  promises  and  proclaimed 
a  rival  emperor.  Justinian  thereupon  became  thoroughly 
alarmed  and  was  inclined  to  leave  the  city.  But  Theodora 
made  a  courageous  speech  to  his  council  declaring  that  she 
would  not  flee;  Narses  went  out  to  win  back  some  of  the 


JUSTINIAN  AND  THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     133 

Blues  by  a  discreet  distribution  of  cash;  and  Belisarius 
and  Mundus  with  barbarian  mercenaries  slaughtered  the 
throng  in  the  Hippodrome.  From  the  cries  of  "  Beat  them ! " 
which  had  been  raised  by  the  mobs  this  six-day  disturbance 
is  known  as  the  Nika  riot.  For  some  years  afterwards  Jus- 
tinian discontinued  the  games  of  the  circus,  and  instituted 
a  number  of  new  administrative  measures  intended  to  make 
the  city  more  orderly  henceforth.  But  before  his  long 
reign  ended  the  Blues  and  Greens  were  at  it  again  as  lively 
as  ever. 

Almost  the  first  act  of  Justin's  reign  was  a  reconciliation 
with  the  Papacy,  followed  by  a  persecution  of  the  Mono- 
physites.  Justinian  felt  that  the  support  of  the  ^^^  p^ 
Pope  was  necessary  in  his  reconquering  of  the  and 
West.  As  soon,  however,  as  his  generals  had  J"^^'"'^" 
gained  a  foothold  in  Italy  and  control  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
it  became  evident  that  Justinian  intended  to  be  master 
even  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  In  537,  Pope  Silverius,  in 
whose  election  Gothic  influence  had  been  felt,  was  deposed, 
and  Vigilius,  the  candidate  of  the  Empress  Theodora,  re- 
placed him.  She  also  is  credited  with  convincing  her  hus- 
band that  it  would  be  better  policy  to  lessen  his  severities 
toward  the  Monophysites,  who,  despite  repeated  persecu- 
tions, were  displaying  increasing  strength.  Accordingly 
Justinian  tried  to  win  them  over  by  an  imperial  edict 
anathematizing  the  writings  of  certain  Nestorians,  which 
had,  however,  been  approved  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon 
in  451.  When  Pope  Vigilius  opposed  Justinian's  edict,  the 
imperial  troops  removed  him  from  Rome,  where  he  was  not 
very  popular  anyway,  owing  to  such  acts  as  killing  a  notary 
with  a  blow  of  his  fist  and  ordering  his  own  nephew  flogged 
to  death.  The  pope  was  taken  first  to  Sicily,  then  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  was  ready  by  the  time  he  arrived  there  to 
give  in  to  Justinian.  But  he  soon  repented  of  this  decision, 
and  the  remaining  seven  years  of  his  pontificate  were  spent 
in  a  vain  eff^ort  to  squirm  out  of  the  position  to  which  he  had 
committed  himself  by  solemn  vows  and  written  statements. 
He  was  kept  a  virtual  prisoner  at  Constantinople  much  of 


134        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  time,  was  threatened  with  force  when  he  fled  to  sanctu- 
aries for  safety,  and  finally  was  banished  to  a  desert  island. 
The  fifthoecumenical  council  of  tJieChurch,  held  at  Con- 
stantinople in  5^53  in  the  new  church  of  St.  Sophia,  supported 
Justinian;  and  those  clergy  who  sided  with  Vigilius  were 
punished  with  stripes,  imprisonment,  exile,  and  deposition. 
Vigilius  himself  in  the  end  submitted,  but  by  so  doing  les- 
sened the  authority  of  the  Papacy  in  the  West,  where  the 
Archbishops  of  Milan  and  Aquileia  termed  him  a  traitor  to 
orthodoxy  and  initiated  a  long  schism.  During  the  remain- 
der of  his  reign  Justinian  controlled  the  elections  of  popes 
and  church  afi'airs  generally. 

In  short,  Justinian  was  as  autocratic  in  religious  as  in 
political  matters  and  acted  as  if  supreme  head  of  the  Church. 
Religious  ^^t  he  was  also  as  eager  to  forward  the  interests 
policy  of         of  Christianity  as  he  was  to  restore  the  power  of 

Justinian  it-.  x-        •  tt  •        t 

the  Roman  Empire.  He  was  generous  m  guts  to 
churches  and  monasteries,  zealous  in  encouraging  mission- 
aries to  the  barbarians,  and  severe  in  legislation  against 
pagans  and  heretics.  He  has  the  discredit  of  having  closed 
the  schools  of  philosophy  at  Athens  and  of  confiscating  the 
endowments  even  of  Plato's  Academy  and  the  funds  whose 
income  supplied  the  salaries  of  the  professors,  who  them- 
selves fled  to  the  Persian  court.  In  Justinian's  old  age,  when 
he  had  lost  interest  in  wars  and  in  the  details  of  the  defense 
of  the  Empire,  which  had  once  so  absorbed  his  attention,  he 
still  loved  to  engage  in  theological  discussions  and  was  still 
intent  upon  making  his  people  one  in  faith  and  doctrine. 

Justinian's  trouble  with  the  pope  illustrates  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  holding  together  in  one  Church  the  two  halves 
The  East-  of  the  Christian  world  in  East  and  West.  It  has 
ern  Church  \)qqii  estimated  that  Constantinople  was  at  vari- 
ance with  Rome  over  religious  matters  nearly  half  of  the 
time  between  337  and  878.  The  eighth  and  last  council  in 
the  East  which  is  accepted  as  oecumenical  by  the  Roman 
Church  was  that  held  in  Constantinople  in  869.  The  final 
schism  did  not  come  until  1054,  but  there  had  been  little 
true  unity  for  a  long  time  before.    Ever  since  then,  despite 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     135 

one  or  two  attempts  at  reunion,  the  Roman  Catholics  have 
been  distinct  from  Greek  CathoHcs  and  from  Russian 
Christians. 

Hilderic,  the  weak  king  of  the  Vandals  from  523  to  530, 
had  been  favorable  to  the  orthodox  Catholics  rather  than 
to  the  Arians,  and^ friendly  to  Justinian,  whose  Rgconquest 
overlordship  he  recognized  nominally.  When  the  of  North 
Vandals,  dissatisfied  with  his  rule,  deposed  him, 
and  made  Gelimer  their  king,  Justinian  had  a  pretext  for  in- 
terference. Belisarius,  with  an  army  of  some  twenty  thou- 
sand whose  chief  strength  lay  in  its  heavy-armed  mailed 
cavalry  (cataphracH) ,  quickly  defeated  the  Vandals  in  two 
battles  and  Gelimer  surrendered  in  534.  Sardinia,  Corsica, 
and  the  Balearic  Isles  were  also  occupied  by  Justinian's 
lieutenants,  and  the  spoils  taken  from  Rome  in  455  were 
recovered.  The  Moors  or  Berbers,  however,  who  had  already 
been  winning  their  native  soil  back  from  the  Vandals, 
maintained  a  stubborn  resistance  for  fourteen  years  more. 
Justinian  was  never  able  to  conquer  much  of  Mauretania,  the 
westernmost  stretch  of  North  Africa  and  equivalent  to  mod- 
em Morocco.  But  he  held  Ceuta,  the  important  citadel 
guarding  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  He  thoroughly  fortified 
the  frontier  of  what  he  had  gained  —  a  great  labor,  since  the 
Vandals  had  razed  the  fortifications  of  most  towns  except 
Carthage.  Huge  ruins  remain  to-day  to  show  on  how  vast  a 
scale  the  work  was  done.  The  African  provinces  had  suf- 
fered terribly  during  the  long  struggle  with  the  wild  Berbers, 
and  complained  of  the  heavy  taxation  of  Justinian's  officials. 
We  may  get  some  idea  of  the  population  of  North  Africa 
at  this  time  from  the  exaggerated  complaint  of  the  Secret 
History  that  five  million  people  were  slain  in  the  course  of 
its  conquest,  and  from  the  large  corps  of  officials  employed 
in  governing  it.  At  the  head  was  the  praetorian  prefect, 
later  known  as  the  "exarch,"  who  received  a  larger  salary 
than  did  all  the  members  of  his  staff  together.  Beneath  him 
were  his  staff  of  about  four  hundred  persons,  seven  gover- 
nors with  fifty  helpers  each,  and  six  dukes  with  forty  clerks 
apiece  in  charge  of  the  frontiers  —  altogether  a  thousand 


136        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

officials.  Justinian  did  what  he  could  to  restore  the  pros- 
perity of  Byzantine  Africa,  and  embellished  Carthage  with 
a  number  of  new  buildings. 

When  Justinian  undertook  his  war  against  the  Vandals, 
the  Kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  Italy  was  ruled  by  a 
Reconquest  young  king  whosc  mother  was  well  disposed 
of  Italy  toward  Justinian  and  who  allowed  Belisarius  to 

use  Sicily  as  a  base  of  operations  against  Africa.  Her  son 
had  disgusted  the  Gothic  chiefs  by  crying  when  his  teacher 
whipped  him ;  but  the  manly  education,  which  they  insisted 
upon  giving  him  instead,  had  the  effect  of  making  him  too 
tough ;  and  his  vicious  ways  caused  his  death  a  few  months 
after  the  Vandal  king  surrendered  to  Belisarius.  The  queen 
mother  succeeded  in  marrying  the  next  candidate  for  the 
throne,  her  cousin,  but  presently  he  had  her  strangled.  This 
gave  Justinian  an  excuse  for  declaring  war.  Belisarius, 
helped  by  the  Franks,  whom  Justinian's  clever  diplomacy 
induced  to  invade  Provence  and  the  north  of  Italy,  and  by 
another  Byzantine  general  who  conquered  Dalmatia,  but 
hampered  by  Narses,  whom  Justinian  sent  out  for  a  time 
with  another  army  to  spy  upon  him,  won  a  series  of  suc- 
cesses from  535  to  540  culminating  in  the  capitulation  of 
Ravenna.  But  then  under  a  new  king,  Totila,  the  Goths 
renewed  the  struggle,  and  by  551  had  reconquered  most  of 
Italy  and  had  seized  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica  as  well. 
Finally  the  now  aged  Narses  defeated  and  killed  Totila  in 
552,  and  by  555  resistance  was  practically  at  an  end,  and 
the  Franks  and  Alamanni,  who  had  taken  advantage  of  the 
disorder  to  ravage  Italy,  had  been  driven  out.  But  Rhaetia, 
Noricum,  and  Pannonia  were  lost  to  the  Empire,  and  in  568 
the  Lombards  began  their  successful  invasions  and  partial 
conquest  of  Italy.  Meanwhile  Justinian  had  no  thought  of 
setting  up  again  a  Western  emperor;  Italy,  like  Africa,  was 
ruled  by  an  exarch  subordinate  to  Constantinople,  and  the 
days  of  the  Roman  senate  were  over.  This  Exarchate  of 
Ravenna,  though  soon  greatly  reduced  in  size,  lasted  for  a 
long  time  after  the  Lombards  entered  Italy.  Ravenna 
itself  did  not  fall  until  751,  and  the  Byzantine  Empire  held 


138        THE   MEDIEVAL  HISTORY  OF   EUROPE 

Sicily,  parts  of  southern  Italy,  and  other  scattered  points 
on  the  coast  like  Venice,  on  into  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries. 

A  considerable  strip  of  southeastern  Spain  was  also  seized 
by  Justinian,  when  a  usurper  appealed  to  him  for  aid 
p     .  .  against  the  Arian  king,  who  was  persecuting  his 

reconquest  Catholic  subjects.  In  the  course  of  time,  how- 
o  pain  ever,  this  territory  gradually  reverted  to  the 
Visigoths.  But  Justinian  had  almost  succeeded  in  bringing 
the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  within  the  Empire,  and 
he  assumed  by  virtue  of  his  generals'  conquests  a  series  of 
titles  such  as  Africanus,  Vandalicus,  Gothicus,  Alamannicus, 
Francicus,  Germanicus. 

Nominally  the  Balkan  peninsula  east  of  Dalmatia  and 
Pannonia  had  formed  a  part  of  the  Empire  at  Justinian's 
T     .  .     '      accession,  but  barbarians  had  been  plundering 

Justinian  ,  .  . 

and  the  it  almost  at  will.   He  now  filled  the  entire  region 

barbarians  ^^^^  ^^^  Danube  to  the  Sea  of  Marmora  with 
lines  of  forts,  and  here,  as  on  all  his  frontiers,  he  revived^  the 
old  Roman  system  of  entrusting  the  defense  of  the  border 
to  troops  levied  from  that  province  and  settled  upon  lands 
granted  to  them  upon  the  very  frontier.  The  armies  of 
Belisarius  and  Narses,  on  the  other  hand,  were  largely  re- 
cruited from  barbarians  outside  the  Empire.  Justinian  also 
relied  upon  a  very  ingenious  and  complicated  diplomacy  in 
dealing  with  the  barbarians.  We  have  already  seen  his  skill 
in  making  friends  in  the  royal  houses  of  Africa,  Italy,  and 
Spain,  and  then  in  discovering  plausible  pretexts  for  con- 
quest. He  dazzled  the  simple  ambassadors  of  the  savage 
tribes  upon  his  borders  by  the  splendor  of  his  court  when 
they  came  to  Constantinople,  and  gratified  their  kings  with 
presents,  favors,  and  titles.  But  he^as  also  constantly  set- 
ting them  upon  one  another  and  thus  keeping  them  occupied 
so  that  they  might  not  invade  his  territory.  His  alliances 
extended  to  Ethiopia,  Abyssinia,  and  the  Upper  Nile. 
This  policy  was  expensive,  however,  since  the  barbarians 
would  not  do  his  bidding  without  subsidies.  But  what 
especially  hampered  Justinian  in  his  schemes  for  extending 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     139 

and  strengthening  the  Empire  was  the  hostility  of  the 
Persian  Kingdom  on  his  eastern  frontier.  Wars  which  were 
none  of  his  seeking  and  which  lasted  from  524  to  532,  from 
540  to  545,  and  from  549  to  562,  ended  by  his  agreeing  to 
pay  Persia  an  annual  tribute.  Meanwhile  he  had  been 
forced  to  draw  away  so  many  troops  from  the  northern 
frontiers  for  these  Persian  wars  and  for  the  long-drawn-out 
conquests  of  Africa  and  Italy,  that  the  Huns,  Slavs,  and 
Bulgars  were  able  to  make  incursions  across  the  Danube  on 
an  average  of  one  in  four  years  for  the  reign.  In  the  end 
they  were  always  driven  back,  but  sometimes  got  as  far  as 
the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  or  the  environs  of  Constantinople. 
In  his  old  age  Belisarius  gained  his  last  laurels  by  repulsing 
a  great  invasion  of  the  Huns  in  558. 

The  original  Bulgars  were  nomads  like  the  Huns  and  fol- 
lowed them  into  the  Pontus  Steppe  at  a  somewhat  later 
date.    They  first  appeared  south  of  the  Danube  _.    _,  , 

The  Bulgars 

toward  the  end  of  the  fifth  century.  As  the  Huns 
a  century  before  had  conquered  many  German  tribes  and 
driven  others  into  the  Roman  Empire,  so  now  the  Bulgars 
carried  the  Slavs  with  them  in  frequent  raids  across  the 
Danube.  Though  originally  the  masters,  the  Bulgars  were 
eventually  to  adopt  the  language  and  customs  of  the  Slavs, 
and  fuse  with  them  into  the  Bulgarian  nation  that  we  Imow 
to-day. 

The  early  history  of  the  Slavs  is  uncertain.  They  are 
classed  as  of  Alpine  race,  and  their  closest  racial  affilia- 
tion seems  to  be  with  the  Celts ;  they  speak  Ian-    ^,    ^, 

Vt^i  •  The  Slavs 

guages  of  the  Indo-European  group.  They  m- 
clude  Letts  and  Lithuanians  near  the  Baltic  Sea  as  well  as 
the  Russians  and  the  Slavs  south  of  the  Danube.  Several 
centuries  before  our  era  the  Germans  had  pushed  them 
back  east  of  the  Vistula,  but  in  the  early  centuries  of  our  era 
the  Slavs  appear  to  have  multiplied  rapidly  in  numbers  and 
to  have  expanded  widely  over  eastern  Europe.  They  were 
an  agricultural  peasantry,  inferior  to  the  Germans,  however, 
in  their  vegetarian  diet  and  lack  of  domestic  animals  to  aid 
their  labors.  Also  political  and  social  institutions  were  little 


140        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

developed  among  them,  and,  while  they  were  kindly, 
thrifty,  and  inured  to  hardships,  they  were  rather  wanting 
in  enterprise  and  aggressiveness,  and  were  fonder  of  music 
than  of  warfare.  Many  of  them  became  a  subjected  peas- 
antry, toiling  under  the  yoke  of  the  nomads  from  the  East, 
but  others  seem  to  have  learned  from  their  invaders  the 
lesson  of  fighting  and  ravaging,  and  to  have  become  invaders 
themselves  when  the  East  Goths  left  the  Balkan  peninsula 
free  for  new  plunderers  and  occupants.  Procopius  speaks  of 
the  Slavs  especially  in  Bessarabia,  Moldavia,  and  Wallachia. 

Toward  the  close  of  Justinian's  reign  two  important 
changes  occurred  in  the  barbarian  world.  The  White  Huns 
Turks  and  OT  Ephthalites,  a  barbarian  tribe  in  the  Oxus 
'^v^^'s  Basin  beyond  the  Persian  Kingdom,  which  they 

had  often  distracted  by  their  attacks  from  its  aggressions 
against  the  Byzantine  Empire,  were  overthrown  by  the 
Turks,  who  were  later  to  afifect  European  history  so  pro- 
foundly. At  the  same  time  another  wave  of  Asiatic  nomads, 
the  Avars,  began  to  roll  westward.  Justinian  in  his  last 
years  paid  them  a  yearly  subsidy  as  a  reward  for  defeating 
the  Bulgars  and  Slavs  who  had  been  attacking  his  territo- 
ries. Soon  after  Justinian's  death  they  fought  under  their 
khagan,  Baian,  against  the  Franks  in  Thuringia,  and  then 
combined  forces  with  the  Lombards  to  defeat  the  Gepidse 
on  the  Upper  Danube.  The  Lombards  then  descended 
from  Pannonia  upon  Italy,  while  the  Avars  absorbed  the 
territory  of  the  Gepidae  and  occupied  the  plain  of  present 
Hungary.  Soon  they  came  to  tyrannize  over  a  much  greater 
region,  for  the  Germans  in  pushing  west  and  south  had  left 
central  Europe  open.  During  the  remainder  of  the  sixth 
century  Avars  wintered  yearly  in  the  neighborhood  of 
modern  Numberg  in  northern  Bavaria;  their  sway  at  its 
height  probably  extended  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  Sparta 
and  from  the  Tyrol  to  Russia.  But  by  the  eighth  century 
their  power  began  to  decline. 

Returning  to  Justinian,  we  have  to  note  some  of  his 
administrative  reforms.  He  abolished  the  sale  of  ofhces, 
a  practice  liable  to  lead  the  purchaser  of  the  ofhce  to  make 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     141 

as  much  profit  out  of  it  as  possible,  and  he  raised  the  sal- 
aries of  his  governors  so  that  they  would  not  Reforms 
be  tempted  to  steal.  He  suppressed  a  number  in  internal 
of  unnecessary  offices,  even  including  such  high  sovernmen 
posts  as  those  of  the  vicarii,  and  he  rearranged  and  simpli- 
fied the  official  hierarchy  and  adapted  it  to  present  needs. 
He  was  aware  that  only  about  one  third  of  the  taxes  reached 
his  treasury  and  tried  to  make  his  officials  more  efficient, 
careful,  and  honest  in  this  respect.  His  many  enterprises 
were  very  costly,  however,  and  although  he  economized 
strictly  in  certain  respects,  and  although  his  officials  taxed 
the  people  almost  beyond  endurance,  he  died  leaving  debts 
as  against  a  considerable  surplus  in  the  treasury  at  the 
beginning  of  Justin's  reign.  The  Secret  History  complains 
bitterly  that  he  was  wastefully  extravagant  in  some  things, 
while  in  others  he  deprived  many  people  of  their  source  of 
revenue  or  their  customary  enjoyments  by  his  strict  policy 
of  financial  retrenchment.  For  instance,  he  discontinued 
public  shows  and  the  free  distribution  of  corn;  he  seldom 
created  consuls;  he  reduced  the  soldiers'  pay  and  the  fees 
and  pensions  of  lawyers  and  physicians  and  the  imperial 
post  by  relays  of  horses.  On  the  other  hand,  he  tried  to  les- 
sen the  law's  delays  and  to  make  it  possible  for  most  liti- 
gants to  settle  their  cases  without  having  to  appeal  to 
Constantinople  and  undertake  an  expensive  visit  or  resi- 
dence there. 

But  the  great  legal  work  of  Justinian  was  to  put  the 
entire  living  body  of  the  Roman  law  into  permanent  and 
final  form.  That  law,  as  we  have  seen,  had  ceased  Law  books 
to  develop,  had  begun  to  deteriorate,  and  would  °^  Justmian 
have  soon  died  out,  as  did  most  of  classical  civilization, 
had  not  Justinian  boiled  it  down  and  preserved  it,  as  a 
housewife  cans  fruit  that  would  otherwise  decay.  This  ex- 
tremely valuable  labor  was  performed  in  a  few  years.  Law- 
yers were  becoming  lazy  in  Justinian's  day  and  contented 
themselves  with  citing  old  statutes  and  authorities,  in- 
stead of  reasoning  out  the  correct  solution  of  a  case  for 
themselves.    But  there  was  often  disagreement  as  to  the 


142        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

authorities.  Justinian  felt  that  the  law  should  be  standard- 
ized, that  one  correct  and  official  version  of  it  should  be 
published. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Theodosian  Code  of  438  brought 
together  and  abridged  under  various  headings  merely  the 
Code  of  legislation  of  the  emperors  since  Constantine, 

Justinian  ^j^g^^  some  of  the  laws  ordered  what  others  for- 
bade, and  that  one  cannot  tell  from  the  Code  which  were 
enforced  and  which  were  dead-letters.  There  were  similar 
codes  of  the  imperial  legislation  before  Constantine.  In 
528,  the  second  year  of  his  reign,  Justinian  appointed  a 
commission  of  ten  to  collect  all  imperial  statutes  down  to 
his  own  time,  but  to  leave  out  repetitions  and  contradic- 
tions and  to  include  only  laws  which  were  still  in  force. 
This  piece  of  work  was  finished  by  529. 

The  next  year  Tribonian,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 
previous  commission,  was  given  full  charge,  with  professors 
The  Digest  and  practicing  lawyers  of  his  choice,  of  the  more 
or  Pandects  difficult  task  of  making  a  digest  of  all  the  writ- 
ings of  Roman  jurists.  Tribonian  estimated  that  his  com- 
mittee, which  worked  in  three  sections,  had  reduced  three 
million  lines  of  legal  literature  to  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand.  From  some  writers  they  made  but  a  single 
excerpt,  while  one  third  of  their  book  is  drawn  from  the 
writings  of  Ulpian.  Here  again  anything  obsolete  or  contra- 
dictory was  omitted.  The  extracts  were  arranged  according 
to  their  subject-matter  under  four  hundred  and  thirty-two 
titles  similar  to  those  in  the  Code,  although  a  belief  in  the 
mystic  significance  of  numbers  led  to  a  further  division  of 
the  work  into  seven  parts  of  seven  books  each,  and  fifty 
books  in  all,  since  there  was  one  introductory  book.  Hence- 
forth this  work  was  to  be  the  exclusive  authority  and  no 
one  was  to  write  a  commentary  on  it.  Such  was  the  famous 
Digest  or  Pandects,  completed  in  533.  It  preserved  in  a 
practical  form  enough  of  the  writings  of  the  earlier  great 
jurists  to  enable  later  ages  to  benefit  by  their  thought  and 
to  continue  to  make  use  of  the  Roman  law. 

The  preparation  of  the  Digest  had  revealed  to  Tribonian 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE  EMPIRE     143 

the  need  of  further  revision  of  the  Code,  which  was  reissued 
in  534  in  the  form  now  extant.    The  other  two    The  revised 
law  books  of  Justinian  which  have  come  down    institutes 
to  us  are  his  Institutes,  a  textbook  for  students    and  Novels 
in  the  law  schools  based  upon  the  earlier  I?istitutes  of  Gaius, 
and  his  Novels,  or  new  laws  issued  during  the  remainder  of 
the  reign.    Some  of  these  were  enacted  in  order  to  supple- 
ment or  correct  certain  parts  of  the  Code  and  the  Digest. 
Such  was  the  Corpus  luris,  or  body  of  law,  which  medieval 
and  modern  western  Europe  were  to  revive  and  use.    Most 
of  it  is  in  Latin,  but  the  Novels  are  mainly  in  Greek. 

Justinian  maintained  the  Roman  tradition  of  magnificent 
public  works  as  well  as  of  lawmaking.  We  have  already 
mentioned  the  elaborate  rings  of  massive  fortifi-    ^  ., ,. 

•  1         I'll  1     1      1        T-        •         Buildings 

cations  with  which  he  surrounded  the  Empire 
and  the  splendid  structures  with  which  he  adorned  his 
newly  acquired  city  of  Carthage.  When  the  Persians  de- 
stroyed the  great  Eastern  metropolis,  Antioch,  he  rebuilt  it 
in  munificent  style,  as  he  did  other  Syrian  cities  destroyed 
by  earthquakes  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign.  But  most 
impressive  was  the  new  Constantinople  that  rose  after  the 
great  fire  during  the  Nika  riot.  To-day  little  is  left  of  its 
statues,  porticoes,  basilicas,  hospitals,  and  the  vast  and 
richly  adorned  Sacred  Palace  of  the  emperor.  Even  of  the 
churches  only  two  or  three  remain,  but  among  them  is  the 
greatest  of  all,  St.  Sophia. 

This  church  is  the  finest  example  of  Byzantine  architec- 
ture and  is  "  perhaps  the  boldest  instance  of  a  sudden  change 
in  almost  every  respect,  whether  of  plan,  eleva-  The  church 
tion,  or  detail,  which  is  known  to  architecture."  °^  ^'-  Sophia 
The  dome  had  been  used  by  the  Romans,  but,  as  in  the  well- 
known  Pantheon  at  Rome,  had  been  built  up  directly  on  a 
foundation  of  thick,  circular  wall,  so  that  the  ground-plan 
of  the  interior  was  no  larger  than  the  circumference  of  the 
dome  itself.  Now  a  central  dome,  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine  feet  above  the  floor,  one  hundred  and  seven  feet  in 
diameter,  and  forty-six  feet  in  depth,  was  raised  high  in 
air  above  the  roofs  of  the  rest  of  the  structure,  and  was 


144        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

supported  on  the  keystones  of,  and  by  pendentives  between, 
four  great  round  arches  springing  from  four  great  piers, 
placed  at  the  four  corners  of  a  square  large  enough  to  cir- 
cumscribe the  circumference  of  the  dome.  Pendentives  are 
triangular  segments  of  masonry  which  carry  the  weight  of 
the  hemispherical  dome  down  to  the  four  piers  and  which 
thus  make  the  transition  from  the  circular  space  above  to 
the  larger  square  opening  below.    Two  of  the  great  arches 


y\  i  I  j   1 1  /\  I 


«-'•»-• 


GROUND-PLAN  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ST.  SOPHIA 


opened  into  half  domes,  beneath  which,  as  beneath  the 
great  central  dome,  was  open  floor  space.  What  is  more, 
each  half  dome  rested  upon,  and  opened  into,  three  smaller 
half  domes  or  apses.  The  two  great  arches  on  the  north  and 
south  sides  of  the  dome,  however,  were  filled  in  with  sup- 
porting arches  and  columns,  and  beneath  them  were  porti- 
coes running  along  either  side  of  the  main  auditorium.  If 
we  include  these  porticoes  beyond  the  columns  at  either 
side  of  the  open  floor  space  beneath  the  domes,  we  have 
an  interior  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  by  two  hundred 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     145 

and  fifty  feet  in  the  form  of  a  vast  nave  with  an  aisle  on 
either  side.  In  this  respect  St.  Sophia  is  something  Hke  a 
basilica,  but  by  virtue  of  its  central  and  subsidiary  domes 
it  belongs  to  the  round  or  concentric  style  of  ecclesiastical 
architecture. 

The  central  dome  was  pierced  with  a  ring  of  forty  arched 
windows  through  which  light  flooded  th^  spacious  interior. 
"It  is  singularly  full  of  light  and  sunshine,"  writes  Proco- 
pius.  "  You  would  declare  that  the  place  is  not  lighted  from 
without,  but  that  rays  are  produced  within  itself,  such  an 
abundance  of  light  is  poured  into  this  church."  Columns 
and  capitals  have  now  broken  away  from  the  restrictions  of 
the  three  classical  Greek  orders  and  are  no  longer  uniform 
in  style.  Often  the  capitals  are  carved  differently  and  have 
each  some  particular  design  worth  noting,  but  this  variety 
is  not  carried  so  far  but  that  they  harmonize.  Henceforth 
we  must  speak  of  Byzantine  as  well  as  Doric,  Ionic,  and 
Corinthian  columns  and  capitals.  "Who  could  tell,"  con- 
tinues Procopius,  "of  the  beauty  of  the  columns  and 
marbles  with  which  the  church  is  adorned?  One  would 
think  that  one  had  come  upon  a  meadow  full  of  flowers  in 
bloom.  Who  would  not  admire  the  purple  tints  of  some  and 
the  green  of  others,  the  glowing  red  and  glittering  white, 
and  those  too  which  nature,  like  a  painter,  has  marked 
with  the  strongest  contrasts  of  color?  "  Unfortunately,  since 
the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  in  1453,  much 
of  this  wonderful  coloring  and  ornamentation  has  been 
covered  with  Mohammedan  whitewash.  The  mosaics  of 
the  cherubim  with  six  wings  in  the  pendentives  of  the  great 
dome  are  almost  the  sole  visible  remnant  of  Christian 
decoration.  Procopius  finally  speaks  of  the  psychological 
and  religious  effect  of  the  great,  yet  light  and  graceful, 
interior  upon  the  beholder.  "Whoever  enters  there  to  wor- 
ship perceives  at  once  that  it  is  not  by  any  human  strength 
or  skill,  but  by  the  favor  of  God  that  this  work  has  been 
perfected.  His  mind  rises  sublime  to  commune  with  God, 
feeling  that  He  cannot  be  far  off,  but  must  especially  love 
to  dwell  in  the  place  which  He  has  chosen.   And  this  takes 


146        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

place  not  only  when  a  man  sees  It  for  the  first  time ;  but  it 
always  makes  the  same  impression  upon  him,  as  though  he 
had  never  beheld  it  before." 

At  Ravenna  in  Italy,  where  the  buildings  of  Justinian's 
time  have  remained  unaltered,  one  can  study,  better  even 
Churches  at  than  at  Constantinople  and  Rome,  the  graceful 
Ravenna  Byzantine  capitals  and  columns  and  brilliant 
mosaics,  and  the  early  Christian  basilican  type  of  archi- 
tecture. The  church  of  Sant'  Apollinare  In  Classe,  which 
stands  three  miles  outside  the  city  in  a  deserted  plain, where 
was  once  the  busy  Byzantine  seaport,  and  the  church  of 
Sant'  Apollinare  Nuovo  In  Ravenna  Itself,  are  two  fine 
sixth-century  specimens  of  the  columnar  basilica  adapted 
to  Christian  use.  Both  are  oblong  In  ground-plan  except 
for  the  large  semicircular  apse  which  protrudes  at  one  end. 
Each  basilica  has  at  Its  side  a  round  tower  of  fortified 
aspect,  which  does  not,  however,  form  an  Integral  part  of 
the  building.  Their  exteriors  are  very  plain,  and  the  low 
roofs  over  the  side  aisles  slant  In  lean-to  fashion  against  the 
main  body  of  the  church.  The  beauty  Is  all  In  the  columns, 
the  capitals,  and  the  mosaics  of  the  interior. 

Before  entering  the  nave  one  passes  through  a  sort  of. 
portico  or  vestibule  extending  across  the  front  of  the 
building  and  known  as  the  narthex.  The  long  central  nave 
is  separated  from  the  narrower  aisle  or  corridor  on  either 
side  by  a  row  of  slender  columns  connected  by  a  series  of 
round  arches  springing  from  their  graceful  capitals.  Upon 
these  slender  columns  and  arches  rest  the  walls  of  the  main 
body  of  the  basilica  and  also  the  roof  which  those  walls 
support.  Consequently  the  walls  can  neither  be  thick  nor 
carried  to  a  great  height  and  the  roof  must  be  a  light  one  of 
wood.  Windows  cut  In  the  walls  above  the  roofs  of  the  side 
aisles  admit  light  directly  to  the  nave  and  form  the  "clear- 
story" of  the  basilica.  Between  these  windows  there  is 
some  space  for  mosaics.  But  especially  beneath  them  and 
just  above  the  arches  leading  into  the  side  aisles  is,  on  either 
side  of  the  nave,  a  frieze  or  strip  of  mosaic  running  the  entire 
length  of  the  interior.    Furthermore,  the  apse  in  which  the 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     147 

nave  terminates  is  roofed  over  with  a  half  dome  filled  with 
mosaics.  A  mosaic  is  a  design  or  picture  made  of  small 
cubes  of  stone  or  glass  of  different  colors  set  in  the  floor  or 
wall  or  ceiling  of  a  building.  Those  of  ancient  Roman  times 
are  usually  patterns  or  pictures  set  in  pavements  and  are 
rather  dull  and  colorless  compared  to  the  later  Byzantine 
ones  seen  in  the  domes  and  upon  the  walls  of  Christian 
churches. 

San  Vitale,  another  church  of  the  sixth  century  at 
Ravenna,  illustrates  the  round  or  concentric  style  of  early 
Christian  architecture.  It  is  octagonal  in  shape  with  a 
central  dome  surrounded  by  a  lower  aisle.  Here  again  are 
to  be  seen  splendid  mosaics,  including  those  of  Justinian 
and  Theodora,  and  beautiful  capitals  in  the  double  Byzan- 
tine form  of  a  lower  part  adorned  with  floral  or  other  designs 
and  an  impost  above  upon  which  the  arches  rest.  The  little 
fifth  century  mausoleum  of  the  Empress  Galla  Placidia  at 
Ravenna  has  already  been  described  in  another  connection, 
but  may  be  mentioned  again  as  one  of  the  earliest  distinct 
examples  of  a  building  in  the  shape  of  the  Latin  cross, 
although  some  of  the  early  basilicas  at  Rome  seem  to  have 
approximated  to  that  shape  by  having  transepts  at  the 
very  end  just  before  the  apse  and  altar.  Later  on,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  in  the  time  of  Romanesque  and  Gothic  archi- 
tecture in  western  Europe,  cathedrals  came  to  be  regularly 
built  in  the  form  of  a  Latin  cross. 

Por  several  centuries  after  Justinian,  Constantinople  led 
the  world  in  art.  Almost  all  fine  work  in  gold,  silver,  or 
bronze,  in  ivory  carvings  or  colored  enamels,  Byzantine 
that  one  finds  in  museums  of  western  Europe  ^""^ 
as  dating  from  before  the  twelfth  century,  is  pretty  sure  to 
be  of  Byzantine  workmanship.  The  influence  of  Byzantine 
architecture,  with  its  concentric  plan,  its  domes  and  cupolas, 
its  capitals  and  mosaics,  its  Oriental  tinge,  may  be  seen  in 
southern  France  and  elsewhere  besides  Italy.  In  the  Byzan- 
tine painting,  sculpture,  and  mosaic,  faces,  costumes,  and 
draperies  change  to  suit  the  times,  and  since  the  motive 
of  art  is  Christian  and  Oriental  rather  than  classical,  the 


148        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

artists  strive  to  express  saintliness  rather  than  physical 
beauty  and  emphasize  color  rather  than  form.  Both  the 
individual  figures  and  their  arrangement  together  are  stiff 
but  stately,  like  the  ceremony  of  Justinian's  court.  The 
Christian  symbolism  soon  became  conventionalized  at 
Constantinople;  Byzantine  painting  had  always  been  more 
decorative  than  natural,  and  before  long  it  lost  its  creative 
power  and  simply  followed  the  previous  artistic  traditions 
and  conventions.  Byzantine  art  also  suffered  from  the 
iconoclastic  movement  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries. 
Many  of  the  art  treasures  of  Constantinople  were  later 
carried  off  to  the  West,  where  they  may  be  seen  to-day  in 
museums  or  churches,  like  the  four  bronze  horses  from 
Chios  which  are  now  at  the  church  of  St.  Mark  in  Venice, 
but  which  used  to  stcind  above  the  Imperial  box  In  the 
Hippodrome. 

In  literature  and  learning,  too,  Constantinople  led  the 
Christian  world  through  the  eleventh  century.  Greek  lit- 
Byzantine  erature  was  there  preserved  and  read.  From 
literature  ^^q  ^q  8qq  ^a,s  a  barren  period,  but  from  the 
ninth  to  the  twelfth  century  there  was  much  reading  and 
writing.  This  culture,  however,  consisted  largely  in  "mak- 
ing inventories"  and  digests  of  past  Greek  literature  much 
as  Justinian  and  Tribonian  had  done  with  the  Roman  law. 
Such  a  work  is  the  Myriobiblos,  or  "Library,"  of  Photius 
in  the  ninth  century.  Suidas  composed  a  famous  lexicon 
about  1000.  A  compilation  of  all  historians  was  made  in 
fifty-three  books,  and  many  other  encyclopaedias  and  com- 
pilations were  produced.  Such  books  are  of  the  greatest 
value  to  the  classical  scholar,  but  show  little  new  thought 
or  life.  Psellus  in  the  eleventh  century  wrote  on  almost 
every  subject  and  sometimes  gives  us  a  vivid  picture  of  his 
own  society.  By  the  twelfth  century  some  lively  historians, 
among  them  the  daughter  of  an  emperor,  wrote  of  their  own 
age.  A  number  of  the  emperors,  in  fact,  turned  author.  But 
as  a  rule  Byzantine  literature  lacked  naturalness  and  origi- 
nality, and  was  written  in  obsolete  learned  Greek  and  not 
in  the  language  of  the  people.    Classical  culture  did  not  die 


JUSTINIAN  AND   THE   BYZANTINE  EMPIRE     149 

out  at  Constantinople  as  it  was  doing  in  the  West,  but  it 
was  preserved  in  cold  storage. 

Constantinople  was  not  only  to  continue  a  center  of  art 
and  learning,  while  the  West  sank  deeper  and  deeper  into 
barbarism  and  ignorance ;  it  was  also  to  continue  cornmerce 
to  be  a  great  emporium  of  trade.  It  was  a  city  of  Constan- 
of  a  million  inhabitants,  where  the  height  of  the  '"°^  ^ 
houses  had  to  be  regulated,  at  a  time  when  town  life  had 
almost  disappeared  in  the  West  and  when  even  Rome  had 
shrunk  to  a  population  of  a  few  thousands.  Justinian  tried 
to  develop  industry  and  co;nmerce  and  to  establish  a  trade* 
route  to  the  Far  East  that  would  not  need  to  pass  through 
the  hostile  Persian  Kingdom.  Toward  the  close  of  his  reign 
two  missionaries  introduced  silkworms  from  the  East.  The 
commerce  of  Merovingian  Gaul  was  largely  in  the  hands  of 
Byzantines,  who  had  trading  stations  at  Marseilles,  Bor- 
deaux, and  Orl6ans.  By  way  of  Cartagena  and  Barcelona 
they  traded  with  the  interior  of  the  Visigothic  Kingdom. 
The  coins  of  the  emperors  were  copied  by  the  Prankish 
kings  into  the  seventh  century,  and  the  "byzant"  was  the 
standard  coin  of  the  Mediterranean  world.  Constantinople 
imported  grain  from  Egypt  for  its  populace,  who  also  ate 
salted  provisions  a  good  deal  —  fish,  ham,  and  cheese.  The 
city  had  a  good  fresh  vegetable  market,  however,  and  a 
large  trade  in  wine.  The  chief  articles  of  manufacture  at 
Constantinople  were  its  fine  cloths,  silks,  or  silver  and  gold 
brocades.  But  the  finest  fabrics,  made  in  the  imperial  work- 
shops, were  not  allowed  to  be  exported,  and  left  the  city 
only  as  gifts  from  the  emperor  to  foreign  potentates. 

The  latter  part  of  Justinian's  reign  was  a  rather  gloomy 
period,  when  the  old  emperor,  who  came  to  care  less  and 
less  for  the  things  of  this  world,  neglected  the    weakness 
army  and  other  departments  of  the  government,    g^^antine 
A  destructive  plague,  which  prevailed  for  four    Empire  after 
years,  and,  according  to  Procopius,  killed  the    •'"^  ^"'^" 
best  and  left  the  worst  men,  perhaps  made  the  difference 
between  the  earlier  period  and  the  close  of  his  reign.   Under 
his  successors  things  went  from  bad  to  worse.    While  the 


I50       THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Lombards  were  overrunning  Italy  and  the  Visigoths  were 
recovering  the  southeastern  coast  of  Spain,  the  Persians 
and  northern  barbarians  nearly  destroyed  the  Empire. 
Justinian's  immediate  successor  discontinued  the  tribute 
paid  to  the  Avars  and  also  rushed  into  a  war  with  Persia 
(572-591).  Both  acts  had  dire  consequences.  The  Persians 
took  Antioch  and  other  Syrian  cities  and  captured  nearly 
three  hundred  thousand  prisoners.  When  news  came  that 
they  had  also  seized  a  city  supposed  to  be  impregnable, 
where  the  Byzantines  had  stored  a  vast  amount  of  treasure, 
the  emperor  went  insane.  The  interval  before  the  next 
Persian  war  was  filled  with  wars  with  the  northern  barbari- 
ans, and  when  the  Emperor  Maurice  ordered  his  troops  to 
winter  north  of  the  Danube,  he  lost  his  throne.  During  the 
following  reign  of  terror  of  the  monster,  Phocas  (602-610), 
the  whole  Empire  seemed  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  and  at  first 
there  was  no  improvement  under  his  successor,  Heraclius. 
Another  war  with  the  Persians  (603-628)  had  begun  and 
the  Persians  were  even  more  successful  than  before,  taking 
Damascus  and  Tarsus  as  well  as  Antioch  and  occupying 
Egypt  as  well  as  Syria  and  Palestine,  carrying  off  the  holy 
cross  from  Jerusalem,  and  penetrating  Asia  Minor  to  the 
island  of  Rhodes  and  the  city  of  Chalcedon.  Moreover, 
Heraclius  came  near  losing  both  his  life  and  his  capital  in  an 
ambush  which  the  khagan  of  the  Avars  laid  when  they  were 
holding  a  conference  just  outside  Constantinople.  The  em- 
peror, with  his  crown  under  his  arm,  barely  escaped  inside 
the  walls,  and  the  next  year  the  city  mob  had  to  go  without 
its  free  bread. 

A  little  later  Heraclius  became  so  discouraged  that  he 
was  on  the  point  of  abandoning  Constantinople  and  return- 
Temporary  ing  to  his  native  Africa.  But  the  people  pleaded 
un^der^'^^  with  him  and  the  Church  offered  its  treasures  to 
Heraclius  assist  in  prosecuting  the  war.  He  then  engaged 
for  six  years  in  a  series  of  victorious  campaigns  in  the  East. 
Meanwhile,  in  626  the  Avars,  Gepidae,  Bulgars,  Slavs,  and 
other  barbarians  besieged  Constantinople  from  the  Euro- 
pean side  in  cooperation  with  the  Persians  operating  from 


JUSTINIAN  AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     151 

Asia.  Their  small  boats,  however,  were  soon  destroyed,  and, 
convinced  that  the  city  could  not  be  taken  so  long  as  it 
remained  open  by  sea,  they  raised  the  siege.  Two  years 
later  Heraclius  concluded  peace  with  the  Persians,  who 
returned  the  cross  and  all  their  other  conquests  and  cap- 
tives. But  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  and  Egypt  had  suffered 
terribly  in  the  long  wars  and  now  were  taxed  heavily  to 
pay  for  them.  What  is  more,  only  five  years  were  to  pass 
before  they  would  be  exposed  to  the  irresistible  expansion 
of  the  warlike  religion  which  Mohammed  had  been  founding 
in  Arabia. 

During  these  Persian  wars  the  Avars  and  Slavs  had  been 
scouring  the  Balkan  peninsula,  destroying  towns,  carrying 
off  thousands  of  captives,  or  settling  in  the  terri-  Slavic  set- 
tory  which  they  had  desolated.  From  this  period  thrBalkan 
we  may  date  the  beginnings  of  the  present  Bal-  peninsula 
kan  peoples  —  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Bulgarians,  though  the 
first  two  names  are  not  met  with  until  the  ninth  century. 
Sirmium,  the  key  to  the  northern  half  of  the  peninsula,  fell 
in  582.  During  the  next  century  the  Slavs  settled  in  the 
depopulated  lands  south  of  the  Danube,  so  that  seven 
different  racial  groups  of  them  were  counted  between  the 
river  and  the  Balkan  Mountains.  They  also  pressed  south 
of  that  range  into  Thrace  and  Macedonia,  and  thence  west 
into  Albania,  Dalmatia,  and  the  eastern  Alps,  and  south- 
ward into  Greece.  Concerning  this  great  change  of  popula- 
tion there  is  only  a  single  contemporary  source  of  the 
seventh  century,  but  conclusions  are  also  drawn  from  the 
relative  thickness  with  which  Slavic  place  names  have  sup- 
planted those  of  classical  geography.  It  is  also  supposed 
that  at  this  time  the  Slavs  left  Dacia  in  such  numbers,  to 
migrate  south  of  the  Danube,  that  the  previous  Roman 
population  came  again  to  preponderate  in  what  is  to-day 
called  on  that  account  Roumania.  In  Greece  itself  the 
ancient  Hellenic  language  was  to  survive,  but  the  popula- 
tion ceased  to  be  of  pure  Hellenic  descent,  and  as  late  as  the 
fifteenth  century  there  were  still  in  Laconia,  the  southern- 
most province  of  Greece,  people  speaking  a  Slavic  dialect. 


152        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Some  of  the  Greek  cities,  however,  remained  undestroyed 
amid  all  these  waves  of  invasion  and  kept  up  their  trade 
with  Constantinople. 

Christianity  was  spread  among  the  Serbians  and  Croatians 
by  Latin-speaking  clergy  in  the  period  from  642  to  731. 
Conversion     ^^^^  Conversion,  however,  was  superficial  and 
of  the  Bal-      the  church  service  in  Latin  took  slight  hold  upon 
an  peop  es     ^^^  masses.    It  was  only  when  the  Scriptures 
were  translated  into  a  Slavonic  version  by  the  two  brothers, 
Constantine    (or    Cyril)    and    Methodius,    and   when    the 
liturgy  also  was  put  into  Slavic,  that  Christianity  really  be- 
came the  religion  of  the  people.  This  occurred  in  the  second 
half  of  the  ninth  century  under  the  auspices  of  the  Eastern 
Church.    The  Croatians,  however,  soon  returned  to  their 
allegiance  to  the  Papacy.    In  864,  the  Bulgarian  monarch, 
Boris  I,  was  converted  to  Christianity,  and,  after  some  vacil- 
lation between  the  Eastern  Church  and  the  Church  of 
Rome,  finally  adhered  to  the  former.  He  later  abdicated  in 
order  to  enter  a  monastery.    The  first  Serbian  churches 
were  hardly  big  enough  to  hold  the  priest  and  altar;  the 
people  stood  outside  in  the  churchyard,  which  also  served 
ia.s  a  cemetery, 
f         Though  the  campaigns  of  Heraclius  did  not  permanently 
^'save  Jerusalem  and  his  eastern  provinces,  we  must  not  be- 
little his  achievement.  For  he  probably  did  save 

ocrvicc  rcn- 

dered  by  Constantinople,  which  might  not  have  held  out 
nopk  to'''  had  he  abandoned  it  in  the  depths  of  its  adver- 
European       gity.  As  it  was,  that  great  city  was  to  endure  for 

civilization 

centuries  to  come,  was  to  serve  as  a  protection 
to  western  Europe  from  attacks  from  the  east,  was  to  set 
an  example  of  superior  civilization  to  a  barbarous  world 
about  it  in  both  East  and  West,  was  to  be  a  center  whence 
Christian  missions  would  radiate,  a  preserve  for  classical 
culture  and  Christian  art,  a  mart  of  trade,  a  spring  of  busi- 
ness life  in  the  midst  of  general  economic  stagnation.  To  a 
certain  extent  the  ancient  city,  if  not  the  ancient  city- 
state,  lived  on  in  Constantinople;  but  in  many  respects 
its  life  and  culture  had  been  essentially  altered  by  Chuis- 


JUSTINIAN   AND   THE   BYZANTINE   EMPIRE     153 

tianity,  though  one  would  scarcely  think  of  designating 
that  immoral  and  luxurious  metropolis  as  the  "city  of 
God." 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

The  Emperors  at  Constantinople,  476-527. 
Oman,  The  Dark  Ages,  pp.  33-52. 

Reign  of  Justinian. 

E.  A.  Foord,  The  Byzantine  Empire  (London,  191 1),  chap.  iv. 
J.  B.  Bury,  The  Later  Roman  Empire,  any  one  of  the  first  fourteen  chap- 
ters in  book  iv,  found  in  both  vol.  I  and  vol.  ll. 
Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  ii,  chap.  I  or  11. 

The  City  of  Constantinople. 
Foord,  op.  ciL,  chap.  i. 

The  Hippodrome  at  Constantinople. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  87-113. 

Justinian  and  the  Papacy. 

Dudden,  Gregory  the  Great,  vol.  i,  pp.  58-68  and  199-21 1. 

Heraclius. 

Bury,  op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  book  v,  chap.  11. 

Byzantine  Art. 
Taylor,  The  Classical  Heritage,  pp.  336-44,  and  the  middle  paragraph  on 

P-  383. 
Bury,  op.  cit.,  book  iv,  chap.  xv. 

Sturgis,  History  of  Architecture,  vol.  ll,  book  vil,  chap.  V. 
Procopius,  Of  the  Buildings  of  Justinian.  Translated  into  English  by  A. 

Steward  (London,  1896). 

Byzantine  Civilization. 

Bury,  op.  cit.,  book  iv,  chap,  xvi;  and  book  v,  chap.  xiii. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  212-23. 

Byzantine  Society  and  the  Byzantine  Empire's  Place  in  History. 
Foord,  op.  cit.,  chap.  XX,  pp.  397-406. 

The  Migrations  and  Early  Culture  of  the  Slavs. 
Louis  Leger,  A  History  of  Austria-Hungary  (1889),  chap.  iii. 


CHAPTER  IX 

GREGORY  THE  GREAT  AND  WESTERN  CHRISTENDOM 

After  Justinian  the  next  commanding  personality  and 
central  figure  to  appear  in  European  history  is  Gregory  the 
Gregory's  Great,  pope  from  590  to  604.  His  father  was  a 
and^char-^'^  rich  Roman  noble;  his  mother  and  aunts  were 
acter  pious  ladies  who  were  later  canonized ;  so  that 

Gregory  was  brought  up  in  a  Christian  home  and  given  the 
best  education  obtainable  in  that  age.  Jerome  and  Augus- 
tine were  his  favorite  authors,  but  he  was  trained  especially 
in  the  law,  and  in  573  held  the  important  position  of  city 
prefect  at  Rome.  After  his  father  died  and  his  mother  re- 
tired to  a  nunnery,  he  used  his  inherited  fortune  to  found 
seven  monasteries,  six  in  Sicily,  the  other  in  his  own  family 
mansion  on  the  Caelian  Hill,  where  he  himself  now  became  a 
monk.  Fastings  and  vigils  ruined  his  health,  and  through 
later  life  he  was  subject  to  attacks  of  gout,  acute  indigestion, 
and  slow  fever.  He  became  one  of  the  seven  deacons  in  the 
churches  of  Rome,  and  was  sent  as  a  papal  envoy  to  urge  the 
Byzantine  emperor  to  rescue  Italy  from  the  attacks  of  the 
Lombards.  In  this  capacity  he  resided  at  Constantinople 
six  years,  but  failed  to  get  help  from  the  emperor,  who  was 
busy  with  the  Avars  and  Persians.  Gregory  did  not  learn 
Greek  during  his  stay  at  Constantinople,  but  employed  his 
leisure  in  writing  an  allegorical  work  in  Latin.  He  was 
elected  pope  while  Rome  was  in  the  throes  of  the  bubonic 
plague.  Despite  his  asceticism,  Gregory  made  many  useful 
friendships  with  the  great  both  in  Church  and  State;  he 
knew  the  value  of  liberal  hospitality,  and  how  to  make 
agreeable  presents  to  the  rich  and  powerful  as  well  as  to 
dispense  charity  to  the  poor  and  needy. 

Through  the  early  Middle  Ages,  as  both  imperial  and 
municipal  administration  disappeared  in  the  West,  it  be- 
came  increasingly   the   tendency   for   every  conscientious 


GREGORY  THE  GREAT  155 

and  Industrious  bishop  to  look  after  the  political  and  social 
as  well  as  religious  welfare  of  his  flock.   For  ex-  His  admin- 
ample,  the  bishop  would  take  charge  of  the  aque-  ihe1:ky"of 
ducts  which  supplied  the  city  with  water.  Sim-  Rome 
ilarly,  Gregory,  after  he  became  pope,  tried  to  feed  the 
hungry  populace,  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  city  poor 
and  of  the  war  refugees,  to  ransom  Christian  captives,  and 
to  allay  the  ravages  of  the  plague  by  leading  religious  pro- 
cessions.  The  exarch  at  Ravenna  found  it  difficult  because 
of  the  Lombards  to  exercise  any  close  control  over  the  west 
coast  of  the  peninsula,  and  the  pope's  political  Influence  in- 
jcreased.  in  consequence. 

Gregory  also  acted  as  the  landlord  of  large  private  estates 
which  the  Roman  Church  already  owned  in  Italy,  Sicily, 
Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  even  In  Gaul,  Africa,  and  The  papal  . 
Illyricum.  He  was  an  excellent  business  man,  Patrimony 
with  as  great  a  genius  for  small  details  as  Justinian,  and  he 
watched  very  carefully  over  this  private  patrimony  of  the 
popes,  writing  frequently  to  his  agents  In  distant  provinces 
and  demanding  full  reports  and  strict  accounts  from  them. 
While  he  insisted  upon  the  proprietary  rights  of  the  Church, 
he  wished  to  be  just  to  every  one,  to  have  none  of  the  cor- 
ruption and  oppression  that  we  have  seen  disgraced  im- 
perial taxation,  and  to  be  merciful  and  charitable  to  the 
poor  and  unfortunate.  Gregory  had  serfs,  if  not  slaves,  upon 
his  estates,  like  all  the  great  landlords  of  this  period. 

Gregory  wrote  letters  not  only  to  his  real-estate  agents 
and  to  the  overseers  of  his  serfs  and  tenants,  but  also  to 
numerous    imperial    officials    great    and   small  p^j^  ^j^^^. 
throughout  the  West,  and  to  the  emperor  him-  political 
self  concerning  these  same  men.  He  watched  and    ^  ^^'  ^ 
advised  them  even  in  their  political  actions,  and  constituted 
himself  a  kind  of  imperial  minister  of  the  West.  They  took 
his  advice,  too,  because  It  usually  was  sound  counsel.  When 
the  exarch  did  little  or  nothing  for  central  and  southern 
Italy,  Gregory  stepped  in  and   performed  his  duties  for 
him. 

The  Lombards  had  been  in  Italy  for  over  twenty  years 


156        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

when  Gregory  became  pope.  After  the  death  of  Alboin,  who 
„  ,    .  had  led  them  into  Italy,  they  went  for  ten  years 

Relations  .  ,  ,  .  ,       "^  ,     i   •  ,  , 

with  the  without  a  kmg,  and  were  ruled  mstead  by  some 
Lombards  thirty-five  dukes  in  as  many  different  districts. 
Then  the  nobles  elected  a  king  again  in  the  north,  which 
on  that  account  has  since  been  called  Lombardy;  but  the 
Duchies  of  Friuli  in  northeastern,  of  Spoleto  in  central,  and 
of  Beneventum  in  southern  Italy  remained  practically  inde- 
pendent, and  other  dukes  occasionally  made  the  king  trouble. 
The  emperors  were  too  occupied  at  home  to  send  adequate 
forces  against  the  Lombards,  and  yet  would  not  make  peace 
with  them,  although  the  exarch  at  Ravenna  could  not  pro- 
tect Rome  and  Naples.  Gregory,  on  the  contrary,  favored 
coming  to  terms  with  the  Lombards.  In  592,  in  order  to 
save  Rome,  he  made  peace  on  his  own~authority  with  the 
Duke  of  Spoleto.  Next  the  king  of  the  Lombards  besieged 
the  city,  but  Gregory  by  a  personal  interview  persuaded 
him  to  withdraw  and  vainly  urged  the  emperor  to  make 
peace  with  him.  At  last  in  599  peace  was  made.  When  the 
war  was  resumed  in  601  between  the  Empire  and  the  Lom- 
bards, Rome  seems  to  have  remained  neutral,  and  Gregory 
rejoiced  in  603  at  the  baptism  into  the  Catholic  faith  of  the 
heir  to  the  Lombard  throne.  This,  however,  did  not  mean 
the  end  of  hostilities  between  the  Lombard  kings,  the  Lom- 
bard dukes,  the  exarch,  and  the  pope,  which  continued  in- 
termittently until  the  Lombards  finally  captured  Ravenna 
in  751  and  then  were  conquered  in  their  turn  by  the  Franks 
a  few  years  later. 

Gregory's  election  to  the  Papacy  had  to  be  sanctioned  by 
the  Emperor  Maurice  before  he  was  consecrated,  and  he 
.  duly  informed  the  four  patriarchs  at  Constsmti- 
power  under  nople,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  Jerusalem,  of 
Gregory  j^j^  accession  and  his  adherence  to  the  teachings 
of  the  oecumenical  councils.  However,  he  abated  none  of 
the  papal  claims  in  theory  and  advanced  them  greatly  in 
practice  by  his  energetic  activity  throughout  the  West.  It 
was  not  easy  to  maintain  anything  like  a  general  super- 
vision of  church  affairs  in  those  troubled  times,  when  com- 


GREGORY  THE  GREAT  157 

munlcation  was  so  difficult,  when  Italy  was  thrown  into  con- 
fusion by  the  Lombards,  and  when  the  monarchs  of  the 
Franks  and  Visigoths  tried  to  keep  their  clergy  under  their 
own  control.  Even  in  Gaul,  however,  Gregory  interfered 
occasionally  in  church  matters,  while  in  imperial  Africa  he 
was  able  to  make  his  authority  generally  felt,  although  even 
there  he  had  to  abstain  from  judging  some  cases  because  of 
the  difficulty  in  securing  adequate  information.  He  dis- 
tinctly advanced,  nevertheless,  the  jurisdiction  not  only  of 
his  own,  but  of  ecclesiastical  courts  generally.  Especially  in 
Italy  and  Sicily  he  made  use  of  the  stewards  of  his  estates 
to  maintain  discipline  in  churches  and  monasteries,  to  fill 
vacant  bishoprics,  and  to  prosecute  heretics.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Ravenna,  supported  by  the  exarch,  refused  in 
practice  to  take  orders  from  Gregory,  but  even  he  admitted 
the  papal  claims  in  theory,  writing  to  Gregory  in  this  strain, 
"How  could  I  possibly  venture  to  oppose  that  most  holy 
see  which  transmits  its  decrees  to  the  church  universal?" 
and  "The  providence  of  God  has  placed  all  things  in  your 
hands."  The  Archbishop  of  Dalmatia,  after  a  long  contro- 
versy, had  to  lie  prone  on  the  paving-stones  of  Ravenna  for 
three  hours  and  cry  out,  "  I  have  sinned  against  God  and  the 
most  blessed  Pope  Gregory."  The  patriarchs  of  Constanti- 
nople at  this  time  evoked  strong  protests  from  Gregory  by 
assuming  the  title,  "Universal."  Gregory's  successors  in 
the  Papacy  during  the  seventh  century  seem  to  have  lacked 
his  ability  and  not  to  have  increased  the  papal  power;  but 
his  many-sided  influence  and  forceful  personality  had  set 
a  standard  which  was  not  forgotten,  especially  as  it  re- 
mained recorded  in  his  writings. 

Because  of  his  writings  Gregory  ranks  with  Ambrose, 
Augustine,  and  Jerome  as  one  of  the  four  great  Latin  doc- 
tors of  the  Western  Church.   Forty  sermons  are   Writings  of 
extant  of  the  many  that  he  preached  before    sermons 
great  crowds.   He  seems  to  have  preached  hell-    and  hymns 
fire  a  good  deal,  and  perhaps  the  rough  men  of  his  time 
needed  this.  As  he  sincerely  believed  that  the  wars,  plagues, 
and  decline  of  civilization  in  his  day  meant  the  near  end  of 


158        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  world,  he  was  able  to  refer  with  the  more  force  to  the 
last  judgment.  Gregory  usually  has  been  represented,  and 
usually  represents  himself,  as  a  writer  who  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  "grammar";  that  is,  to  literary  style.  Such  apolo- 
getic statements  are  always  open  to  suspicion,  however, 
even  when  they  come  from  a  pope,  and  in  any  case  show 
that  there  were  critics  then  who  still  esteemed  literary  style. 
Moreover,  we  find  Gregory  himself  lamenting  the  fact  that 
some  of  his  sermons  had  been  published  by  monks  who  took 
down  his  words  at  the  time  without  giving  him  an  oppor- 
tunity "to  emend  them  *with  care  as  I  intended."  The 
"Gregorian  chants  "  approved  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
are  attributed  to  this  pope,  but  some  doubt  has  been  raised 
lately  as  to  how  much  of  an  innovator  he  was  in  the  liturgy, 
and  the  hymns  attributed  to  him  are  perhaps  spurious. 

Besides  fourteen  books  of  letters  Gregory's  chief  works 
are  the  Pastoral  Rule,  the  Moralia,  or  commentary  on  the 
Pastoral  Book  of  Job,  and  the  Dialogues.  The  first  is  an 
Moralia  eminently  practical  book,  instructing  the  bishop 

Dialogues  in  the  care  of  his  flock  and  showing  a  wide  ac- 
quaintance with  human  nature.  The  commentary  on  Job, 
written  during  his  residence  in  Constantinople,  is  a  good 
specimen  of  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  Scripture  so 
much  in  favor  during  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Dialogues  are 
about  the  lives  and  miracles  of  the  saints,  and  introduce  us 
to  a  strange  world  of  monks,  miracles,  demons,  and  special 
providences.  One  must  always  be  on  one's  guard  against 
demons  as  against  germs  to-day;  a  woman  once  nearly 
swallowed  one  who  was  sitting  on  a  lettuce  leaf.  Gregory, 
like  the  later  Calvinists,  delights  in  stories  of  condign  pun- 
ishment especially  dealt  out  by  God  to  heretics,  blasphem- 
ers, and  the  irreverent;  in  his  pages  even  those  who  care- 
lessly disinter  the  bones  of  martyrs  meet  with  sudden  death. 
The  object  of  many  of  his  anecdotes  is  to  stimulate  his 
readers  to  venerate  the  relics  of  the  saints,  to  accept  such 
beliefs  as  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  can  be  saved  by  saying 
masses  for  them,  and  that  the  sign  of  the  cross  dispels  de- 
mons even  when  made  by  an  unbelieving  Jew. 


GREGORY  THE   GREAT  159 

The  frame  of  mind  shown  in  the  Dialogues  was,  however, 
characteristic  of  all  Christian  writers  of  that  time.  The 
same  atmosphere  of  the  mars^-elous,  the  same  Mental 
wealth  of  miracles  —  some  of  which  seem  child-  the  early° 
ish  and  others  immoral  to  the  modern  reader  —  Middle  Ages 
are  found  in  all  the  saints'  Lives  of  the  period,  in  the  history 
of  the  Franks  by  Bishop  Gregory  of  Tours,  of  the  Lombards 
by  Paul  the  Deacon,  and  of  the  Church  in  England  by  the 
monk,  Bede.  Among  the  miracles  ascribed  to  St.  Columban 
—  who  died  in  615,  and  of  whom  we  shall  presently  speak  — 
by  the  monk,  Jonas,  in  his  almost  contemporary  biography, 
are  such  as  filling  a  storehouse  with  grain,  curing  a  finger 
cut  in  harvesting,  preventing  a  beer  vat  left  open  by  a 
monk  from  overflowing  the  pitcher  set  beneath  the  spigot, 
and  causing  a  raven  to  become  conscience-smitten  and 
return  a  stolen  glove.  Gregory  of  Tours  resembled  his 
namesake  the  pope,  not  merely  in  his  firm  belief  in  the 
miracle-working  powers  of  the  relics  of  the  saints,  so  that 
he  sought  a  cure  for  every  bodily  ill  at  the  shrine  of  his  own 
St.  Martin  of  Tours,  and  also  in  the  special  sanctity  of  the 
persons  of  the  clergy  and  the  property  of  the  Church,  but 
furthermore  in  his  readiness  to  overlook  the  most  serious 
faults  in  rulers  provided  they  supported  the  orthodox  faith. 
Thus,  the  ruthless  and  bipod-stained  Clovis  is  a  Christian 
hero  for  the  good"  Bishop  of  Tours,  while  Pope  Gregory 
treated  the  cruel  and  unscrupulous  Prankish  queen,  Brun- 
hilda,  as  the  hope  of  true  religion  in  Gaul,  and  wrote  cordial 
congratulations  on  his  accession  to  Phocas  who  became  By- 
zantine emperor  by  murdering  Maurice  and  all  his  family. 
Less  tactful,  but  more  fearlessly  outspoken  against  iniquity 
in  high  places,  was  St.  Columban,  whom  Brunhilda  forced 
to  leave  the  monastery  where  he  had  spent  twenty  years  be- 
cause he  rebuked  her  grandson  for  keeping  concubines. 

While  Pope  Gregory  believed  that  the  bones  of  the  saints 
possessed  marvelous  virtues,  —  a  belief  by  no  Gregory's 
means  so  contrary  to  the  science  of  antiquity  as  common 
to  that  of  our  time,  —  he  did  not,  like  Gregory  sense 
of  Tours  and  some  other  Christians,  go  so  far  as  to  advise 


i6o       THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

against  the  practice  of  secular  medicine,  nor  did  he  think 
that  asceticism  and  zeal  for  religious  observ^ances  should  be 
carried  to  extremes.  When  a  bishop  had  a  hemorrhage, 
Gregory  consulted  every  doctor  in  Rome  and  sent  him  a 
written  statement  of  the  diagnosis  and  prescription  of  each 
one.  He  also  urged  him  to  drop  all  fasting,  vigils,  and  public 
speaking  until  his  health  should  improve.  When  certain 
zealots  wished  to  observe  the  Sabbath  so  strictly  as  not  to 
wash  at  all  on  that  day,  Gregory  made  the  astute  reply  that 
he  did  not  approve  of  bathing  as  a  pleasure  or  luxury  on  any 
day,  but  that  washing  as  a  physical  necessity  he  did  not  for- 
bid even  on  the  Lord's  day.  When  his  missionaries  began 
their  labors  of  converting  England,  Gregory  warned  them 
that  the  heathen  barbarians  could  not  at  once  be  entirely 
weaned  from  their  old  ways;  that  they  should  not  destroy 
the  old  temples,  but  only  the  idols  in  them,  in  order  that  the 
barbarians  might  the  more  readily  worship  God  in  places 
to  which  they  were  accustomed;  and  that  the  Anglo-Sax- 
ons might  continue  "to  the  praise  of  God"  the  religious 
feasts  at  which  they  had  been  wont  to  sacrifice  oxen  to 
demons.  In  short,  Gregory  invariably  showed  plenty  of 
common^ense  in  dealing  with  any  practical  problem  of  the 
present. 

Gregory  was  the  first  monk  to  become  pope,  and  he  is 
largely  responsible  for  the  general  adoption  of  the  Bene- 
c       ,    ,       dictine  Rule  throughout  the  rrionasteries  of  the 

spread  of  » 

the  Bene-  West.  Indeed,  almost  all  that  we  know  of  Bene- 
dictine Rule  (jict  himself  is  what  Gregory  tells  us.  St.  Bene- 
dict of  Nursia  (480-543)  came,  like  Gregory,  of  a  noble 
Roman  family.  After  three  years  of  hermit  life  he  gained 
so  many  followers  that  he  organized  them  into  communities, 
but  his  Rule  was  not  promulgated  until  about  529  at 
Monte  Cassino.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  become  widely 
known  until  the  time  of  Gregory,  when  Lombard  attacks 
drove  the  monks  from  Monte  Cassino  to  Rome.  Gregory 
gave  his  hearty  approval  to  the  Rule  and  it  was  spread 
to  England  by  his  missionaries.  It  did  not  reach  Gaul, 
however,  until  the  seventh  century,  and  no  trace  of  it  is 


GREGORY  THE  GREAT  i6i 

seen  in  Spain  during  the  Visigothic  period.  But  eventually 
it  was  to  be  universally  employed  through  western  Europe, 
and  followed  in  thousands  of  monasteries  and  nunneries. 

Benedict  profited  both  by  his  own  experience  and  that  of 
others,  making  discriminating  use  of  various  earlier  rules,  in 
drawing  up  this  manual  for  the  army  of  the  Church  —  for 
ecclesiastical  writers  were  constantly  comparing  monks  and 
hermits  to  athletes  in  training  or  soldiers  under  discipline. 
He  had  begun  his  own  ascetic  career  as  a  recluse,"  and  once 
rolled  about  naked  in  a  thorn  bush,  but  he  evidently  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  best  religious  life,  at  least  for  the 
average  man,  was  in  an  organized  community  where  he 
could  practice  the  virtues  of  obedience,  silence,  humility, 
and  ser\ace  of  others.  "Let  no  one  follow  what  he  thinks 
most  profitable  to  himself,  but  rather  what  is  best  for 
another."  The  Rule  is  made  up  partly  of  general  moral  and 
religious  precepts  like  that  just  quoted,  which  appeal  to  the 
better  nature  or  ascetic  enthusiasm  of  the  reader;  partly  of 
specific  regulations  which  remind  one  of  a  boarding-school 
or  military  camp.  The  monks  are  instructed  when  they 
must  stop  talking,  when  they  must  go  to  bed,  where  and 
how  they  are  to  sleep,  when  they  are  to  rise  for  prayers  in 
the  night,  when  they  must  be  up  in  the  morning,  and  what 
schedule  of  devotional  exercises,  manual  labor,  and  reading 
they  must  carry  out  during  the  day.  Also,  whose  weekly 
turn  it  is  to  cook  and  wash  or  to  read  at  meals,  at  what  hours 
the  meals  shall  be  and  of  what  diet  they  shall  consist,  and 
what  clothing  the  monks  are  to  wear.  There  is  a  list,  not 
too  long,  of  penalties  for  tardiness  or  mistakes  either  in  the 
devotional  exercises  or  in  other  work.  Then  there  are  care- 
ful exceptions  made  for  special  cases,  for  very  old  monks, 
very  young  monks,  sick  monks,  new  monks,  monks  away 
from  the  convent  on  a  journey  or  distant  piece  of  work, 
priests  who  reside  in  the  monastery,  pilgrim  monks  or  secu- 
lar guests  who  may  stop  there  for  shelter  or  entertainment, 
artificers  employed  at  the  monastery,  and  the  special 
monastic  offices  of  cellarer,  doorkeeper,  and  provost. 

At  the  head  of  the  monastery  is  an  abbot,  elected  for  life 


i62        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

by  the  monks,  whom  all  must  obey,  through  whose  hands 
all  letters  to  the  monks  from  without  must  pass,  and  who 
is  urged  to  be  severe  and  impartial  in  rebuking  and  punish- 
ing all  offenses.  The  individual  monk  is  to  have  absolutely 
^o  personal  property,  and  the  social  classifications  of  the 
outside  world  are  not  to  be  regarded  in  the  cloisters,  where 
the  monks  are  to  rank^nly  by  seniority  and  as  they  may  be 
promoted  or  degraded  by  the  abbot.  Each  monastery  is  to 
be  self-governing  and  independent  except  for  the  episcopal 
supervision  of  the  bishop  in  whose  diocese  it  is  located; 
the  Benedictine  Rule  contemplates  no  general  grouping 
of  monasteries  into  orders  or  provinces,  no  placing  of  one 
abbot  above  another.  Numerous  writers  have  united  in 
extolling  the  Rule  for  its  moderation  and  practicability,  its 
avoidance  of  the  extremes  of  asceticism  found  in  Eastern 
monachism,  its  Roman  genius  for  organization  and  regula- 
tion, its  suitability  to  Western  conditions  and  spirit,  its 
psychological  insight  and  lofty  moral  standards,  its  glorifi- 
cation of  manual  labor  which  slavery  had  cast  into  dis- 
repute in  antiquity.  The  reader  can  easily  test  these 
conclusions  for  himself  and  learn  of  the  details  of  the 
monks'  life  by  reading  in  English  translation  this  famous 
document  under  which  lived  so  many  men  through  many 
centuries. 

The  monastery  had  the  advantage  of  being  an  orderly 
community  in  the  midst  of  a  disordered  world.  When  city, 
Monasteries  trade,  industry,  emperors,  and  kings  were  all 
as  centers  of  failing  to  hold  society  together,  and  only  the 

civilization  in  i 

great  landholder  seemed  able  to  keep  a  certain 
local  area  and  social  group  under  his  control,  the  Church 
showed  its  power  to  establish  close  settlements  where  a 
number  of  men  lived  in  harmony  and  served  one  another. 
A  corporation  is  likely  to  have  an  advantage  over  the  in- 
dividual especially  in  economic  matters.  Moreover,  public 
opinion  venerated  the  monastery  as  the  resort  of  holy  men ; 
it  was  often  spared  in  war,  and  kept  receiving  bequests  of 
land  and  other  privileges.  The  monks  were  not  supposed 
to  be  primarily  agriculturists  or  preservers  of  ancient  manu- 


GREGORY  THE   GREAT  163 

scripts;  their  main  business  was  prayer,  praise,  and  devo- 
tion; but  they  usually  did  their  other  work  well,  since  they 
did  it  not  for  a  lord,  but  for  the  Lord.  The  Rule  did  not 
explicitly  encourage  monks  to  engage  in  literary  or  artistic 
work ;  it  merely  prescribed  a  good  deal  of  hard  manual  labor 
and  a  little  reading.  Cassiodorus^,  however,  had  in  his  old 
age,  at  about  the  time  of  Benedict's  death,  established  a 
monastery  to  which  he  gave  his  own  large  library  and  where 
the  monks  gave  much  time  to  study  and  the  copying  of 
manuscripts.  And  as  time  went  on  many  Benedictine  monks 
devoted  more  time  to  such  pursuits  and  less  to  outdoor 
work  than  their  Rule  prescribes.  The  abbot,  who  was 
usually  a  man  of  superior  training  and  intellect,  would  em- 
ploy the  best  methods  of  agriculture  and  husbandry  upon 
his  estates,  or  see  to  it  that  intelligent  copying  and  painting 
were  done  in  his  scriptorium.  Thus  the  monks  did  better 
agricultural  and  industrial  work  than  most  laymen  in  the 
world  about  them,  and,  while  at  first  they  did  not  do  much 
educational  or  literary  work,  they  did  much  more  than  any 
one  else  at  that  time.  The  monks  were,  therefore,  of  great 
importance  in  the  economic  and  intellectual  development 
of  the  early  Middle  Ages.  Almost  the  only  records  of  real- 
estate  and  business  transactions  which  have  come  down  to 
us  from  that  time  are  those  of  the  monasteries,  which,  it  is 
true,  outlived  most  private  houses  and  families,  but  whose 
abbots  would  seem  to  have  been  more  systematic  business 
men  than  their  contemporaries.  Almost  the  only  records 
of  contemporary  events  that  we  have  for  the  period  are 
the  monastic  annals  and  chronicles.  They  are  meager  and 
unsatisfactory  records  —  a  sentence  or  two  per  year  where 
to-day  we  have  a  huge  file  of  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  newspapers.  But  if  we  can  scarcely  call  the  monk- 
ish chronicler  a  journalist,  he  was  at  any  rate  the  only 
annalist  that  the  age  knew.  Besides,  society  had  grown 
stagnant  and  there  was  probably  not  much  more  to  re- 
cord in  a  whole  year  then  than  happens  in  the  course  of  a 
modern  day. 

The  monks  were  preeminently  the  missionaries  of  the 


1 64        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

medieval  Church,  and  Pope  Gregory  too  gave  a  great  im- 
The  pope  petus  to  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Moreover, 
the  monks,      he  increased  the  authority  of  the  Papacy  by 

and  missions      ,,    .        .,       .,,  ,.   •  ,  ,       ,     • 

allying  it  with  monasticism  and  by  bringing  new 
heathen  lands  under  its  control. 

Under  Gregory's  guidance  began  the  conversion  of  the 
Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes  who  had  been  conquering  Britain 
^nverTion  piecemeal  since  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century, 
of  the  Anglo-  and  blotting  out  the  Latin  and  Celtic  languages 
and  the  Christian  religion.  About  600  they  were 
divided  into  a  number  of  petty  kingdoms,  and  the  previous 
inhabitants  of  Roman  Britain  still  held  Wales  and  some 
parts  of  western  England.  Gregory,  whose  custom  it  was 
to  buy  barbarian  slave  boys  and  give  them  a  Christian  edu- 
cation, had  been  especially  attracted  by  the  beauty  of  some 
English  lads  with  light  hair  and  complexions,  and  deter- 
mined to  send  missionaries  to  their  land.  In  597,  a  monk 
named  Augustine  landed  with  forty  others  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Kent  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  England.  Here  they 
soon  converted  King  Ethelbert,  whose  Prankish  wife  was 
already  a  Christian.  Their  first  church  was  St.  Martin's  at 
Canterbury,  which  was  still  standing  from  the  days  of  the 
Roman  Empire  and  which  may  still  be  seen  to-day.  Can- 
terbury was  henceforth  the  religious  capital  of  England 
and  the  seat  of  an  archbishop.  Another  archbishop  came 
to  be  located  at  York  in  the  north. 

The  emissaries  of  Pope  Gregory  were  not  the  first  mis- 
sionary monks  in  the  British  Isles.  The  conversion  of  Ire- 
Irish  land  by  St.  Patrick,  while  the  Roman  Empire 
monasticism  ^^^  falling  to  pieces  in  the  West,  and  the  peculiar 
clan  monasteries  established  there  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. In  those  monasteries  some  ancient  culture  was 
preserved  and  even  Greek  was  still  studied.  Over  a  hundred 
early  Irish  manuscripts  still  extant  in  Continental  libraries 
testify  both  to  the  culture  and  to  the  widespread  missionary 
activity  of  these  Irish  monks.  What  writings  have  come 
down  to  us  in  Old  Irish  are  exclusively  religious.  The  Irish 
monks  also   surpassed  the  rest  of  western  Europe  at  this 


8"  Loneitude  Weat  4°  from  GreeniTJch  0*  Lonpitude      East 


THE  BRITISH  ISLES 

in  the 
Seventh  Century 


Anglo-Saxon  territory  is  left  white 

Kingdoras.of  the  Native  Britons 

Ficts  and  ScotB  are  shaded 


i66        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

time  in  illuminating  manuscripts;  that  is,  in  decorating 
them  with  colored  initials,  border  designs,  and  illustrations. 
The  Celtic  peoples  of  the  British  Isles  were  restless  in  the 
fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  partly  owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  race 
migrations  that  were  in  process  all  over  Europe.  Many  na- 
tives of  Britain,  driven  first  by  the  Picts  and  Irish  and  then 
by  the  Saxons,  crossed  the  Channel  to  the  peninsula  of 
Brittany.  Among  them  monks  were  prominent,  and  some 
of  these  were  Irish.  About  500  there  had  been  a  great  mi- 
gration of  Irish  tribes,  called  "Scots,"  from  North  Ireland 
to  Scotland,  where  they  founded  the  Kingdom  of  Dalriada. 
Here  about  565  came  from  Ireland  St.  Columba  (521-597), 
who  had  changed  his  name  from  Wolf  to  Dove  in  token  of 
his  conversion.  He  founded  a  monastery  upon  the  island 
of  lona,  and  then  passed  on  to  preach  the  Gospel  among 
the  heathen  Picts.  Other  Irish  monks  went  north  to  such 
distant  islands  of  the  sea  as  the  Shetlands,  Hebrides,  Ork- 
neys, and  even  Iceland.  From  lona  they  spread  their  faith 
southward  among  the  heathen  Angles  who  had  invaded 
Northumbria.  Here  the  center  of  monastic  and  missionary 
activity  was  at  Lindisfame,  on  the  east  coast,  under  the 
lead  of  Aidan  about  635. 

Meanwhile  Columban  (543-615)  had  wandered  to  east- 
em  Gaul  —  much  of  Austrasia  was  still  pagan  —  and  had 
St.  Colum-  founded  monasteries  in  the  Vosges  Mountains 
ban  and  where  his  rigorous  Rule  was  enforced.  Columban 

Irish  mis-  i     i-  •  •  i  i      '      i  , 

sions  on  the  did  not  believe  in  sparing  the  rod,  and  a  monk 
Continent       ^^^^  f^jj^^  ^^  g^y  "  Ameh"  after  the  grace  at 

meals  received  six  blows,  while  a  monk  caught  speaking 
alone  with  a  woman  received  two  hundred.  He  did  not, 
however,  forbid  the  reading  of  classical  literature  and  was 
well  versed  himself  in  Greek  mythology  and  poetry.  WTien 
he  was  driven  from  Luxeuil  in  the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy 
by  Brunhilda,  as  before  mentioned,  he  entered  the  country 
of  the  Alamanni,  but  was  banished  thence  in  turn  because 
of  his  violent  attacks  upon  their  heathen  temples  and  idols. 
Then  he  pushed  on  into  Italy  and  built  a  monastery  in  the 
Apennines,  where  he  dwelt  until  his  death.    But  his  work 


GREGORY  THE   GREAT  167 

went  on.  Despite  his  departure  Luxeuil  remained  the  center 
of  monastic  Hfe  in  Gaul.  His  disciple,  St.  Gall,  had  re- 
mained among  the  Alamanni,  and  founded  near  the  Lake  of 
Constance  the  great  monastery  which  has  been  named 
after  him,  and  which  has  had  a  Swiss  canton  named  after  it, 
and  in  whose  library  many  priceless  manuscripts  have  been 
preserved.  Other  Irish  monks  penetrated  Germany  as  far 
as  Salzburg  and  Wiirzburg.  When  all  the  Prankish  king- 
doms were  reunited  under  Dagobert  (629-639),  St.  Aman- 
dus  went  as  a  missionary  to  the  Basques  in  the  extreme 
south  and  to  Flanders  and  Hainault  in  the  extreme  north  of 
Gaul.  Toward  the  close  of  the  same  century  a  part  of 
Frisia  beyond  Flanders  and  the  Rhine  was  conquered  by 
the  Franks,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  missionary  Willibrord 
founded  there  the  episcopal  see  of  Utrecht. 

The  Irish  monks  had  not  been  sent  out  by  the  pope,  and, 
owThg  to  their  separate  development  far  away  from  the  in- 
fluence of  oecumenical  councils  and  out  of  touch  -phe  Irish 
with  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world,  they  dif-  monasteries 
fered  in  some  of  their  usages  from  the  Church  of  under  papal 
Rome,  especially  in  their  method  of  determining  ^°"'^''°^ 
the  date  of  Easter  each  year.  In  England  these  diver- 
gences led  to  considerable  bitterness  between  the  papal  mis- 
sionaries, who  soon  spread  from  Kent  to  the  other  king- 
doms, and  the  British  clergy  of  Wales  and  the  Irish  monks 
of  the  north,  who  in  the  course  of  the  seventh  century 
visited  the  South,  East,  and  West  Saxons.  The  chief  strong- 
hold of  Irish  monasticism  continued  to  be  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Northumbria,  and  there  in  664  the  Synod  of  Whitby 
finally  decided  the  Easter  dispute  in  favor  of  the  papal 
party.  Thereupon  the  Irish  monks  of  Lindisfarne  with- 
drew to  lona.  From  668  to  690,  Theodore  of  Tarsus,  a 
learned  Eastern  monk  acquainted  with  Byzantine  civiliza- 
tion, was  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  thoroughly  or- 
ganized and  united  the  Church  in  England  in  accordance 
with  Roman  usage.  This  church  union  came  long  before 
there  was  a  united  Anglo-Saxon  state.  The  monaster- 
ies which  the  Irish  missionaries  had  founded  throughout 


i68        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Northumbria  were  gradually  made  Benedictine.  In  Gaul, 
too,  the  Benedictine  Rule  ultimately  supplanted  that  of 
Columban,  though  some  monasteries  still  followed  the 
Celtic  customs  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century. 
Meanwhile,  in  Ireland  itself  the  south  had  submitted  to 
the  Papacy  in  636  and  the  north  did  so  in  697,  and  the 
monasteries  founded  by  Columba  in  Scotland  conformed 
in  717. 

The  monasteries  in  England  not  only  led  to  the  conver- 
sion of  the  invaders,  but  were  the  chief  centers  of  civiliza- 
Monastic  tion,  and,  like  the  Irish  monasteries,  preserved 
England:  ^^  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  a  higher  cul- 
^^^^  ture  than  could  be  found  in  most  Western  lands. 

Of  their  teachers  and  writers  Bede  is  the  best  known.  He 
wrote  in  Latin  his  ecclesiastical  history  which  comes  down 
to  731,  commentaries  on  the  Bible,  grammatical  treatises, 
and  even  some  treatises  in  the  field  of  natural  science.  He 
also  tells  us  of  a  poet,  Caedmon,  who  composed  para- 
phrases of  Biblical  story  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue.  X^'hen 
Charlemagne  about  800  wanted  scholars  at  his  Prankish 
court,  he  looked  to  England  for  them.  Irish  culture,  too, 
continued  for  some  time,  and  Bede  praised  the  learning  of 
Ireland  in  his  day. 

From  an  English  monastery  went  forth  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury a  missionary,  who,  building  upon  the  foundations 
Boniface  which  the  Irish  monks  and  other  earlier  mission- 
apostle  to  aries  had  laid,  converted  many  of  the  Germans 
to  the  east  of  the  Rhine  and  reformed  the  Prank- 
ish Church  in  Gaul  and  brought  it  into  closer  relations  with 
the  Papacy.  This  was  Winfrith,  or  Boniface,  the  name  by 
which  he  was  known  after  his  visit  to  the  pope  in  719. 
With  the  powerful  backing  of  Charles_Martel,  the  real 
ruler  of  the  Franks  at  this  time,  as  well  as  with  the  support 
of  the  pope,  Boniface  visited  Frisia,  Thuringia,  Hesse, 
Bavaria.  He  reformed  the  Prankish  churches  through  coun- 
cils held  in  Austrasia  in  742  and  in  Neustria  in  744.  These 
synods  abolished  surviving  heathen  customs,  improved  the 
morals  of  the  priests,  which  seem  to  have  been  sadly  in 


GREGORY  THE   GREAT  169 

need  of  correction,  and  systematized  the  church  organiza- 
tion. In  747  Boniface  secured  from  the  Prankish  bishops  a 
declaration  of  their  fideHty  to  Rome.  In  752  he  anointed 
Pepin,  son  of  Charles  Martel,  king  of  the  Pranks  in  name 
as  well  as  in  fact;  but  that  event  must  await  explanation 
until  a  later  chapter.  The  next  year  the  aged  Boniface 
returned  to  his  first  love  in  the  field  of  foreign  missions, 
Prisia,  and  in  754  was  slain  there  by  the  savage  heathen 
natives. 

To  the  Irish  Church,  and  especially  to  Columban,  was 
perhaps  due  the  introduction  of  the  Penitentials,  or  books 
listing  sins  with  the  punishment  or  penance  for  . 
each  which  the  priest  shall  require  from  the 
sinner.  Such  books  of  penance  existed  among  the  British, 
Irish,  and  Anglo-Saxons,  and  thence  spread  through  the 
Western  Church.  This  specific  prescription  of  acts  of  pen- 
ance for  their  sins  to  rude  barbarians  in  a  brutal  age  by  holy 
priests,  whom  they  would  fear  to  disobey,  has  been  gener- 
ally regarded  as  a  beneficial  education  for  them  in  the  essen- 
tials of  morals  and  decency  at  a  time  when  the  State  was 
weak  and  found  it  hard  to  keep  order  and  punish  crimes. 

Por  a  century  or  more  after  Gregory  the  Great  we  find 
in  the  four  chief  divisions  of  western  Europe  four  Germanic 
peoples:  the  Visigoths  in  Spain,  the  Pranks  in  Lombard7~ 
Gaul,  the  Lombards  in  Italy,  and  the  Anglo-  and  Anglo- 
Saxons  in  the  British  Isles.  The  last  two  peoples, 
however,  had  succeeded  in  conquering  only  parts  of  the 
territories  mentioned.  And  neither  of  the  last  two  united 
their  conquests  at  this  time  into  a  strong  single  state.  There 
was  but  one  Lombard  king,  it  is  true,  but  he  often  had  to 
fight  with  the  Duke  of  Spoleto  or  the  Duke  of  Benevento. 
The  little  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms  kept  struggling  among 
themselves  for  supremacy,  and  now  Kent,  now  Northum- 
bria,  now  Mercia  had  its  brief  moment  of  triumph.  The 
Lombards  and  Anglo-Saxons  had  once  lived  close  together 
and  there  are  close  resemblances  in  their  laws.  At  first  self- 
respecting  and  prosperous  freemen  were  in  the  majority 
among  both  these  peoples,  but  after  they  had  settled  on 


170        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  land  economic  and  social  inequality  developed  among 
them  as  elsewhere  at  that  time.  The  Lombard  laws  of  the 
early  eighth  century  distinguish  three  classes  of  freemen 
serving  in  the  army;  namely,  those  who  are  to  arm  them- 
selves only  with  shield  and  bow  and  arrows,  those  who  have 
more  land  and  can  afford  a  shield  and  spear  and  horse,  and 
the  richest,  who  must  also  wear  a  coat  of  mail  and  perhaps 
provide  other  soldiers  besides  themselves.  The  very  poor- 
est freemen,  on  the  other  hand,  are  excused  from  fighting 
at  all,  probably  because  they  can  afford  no  equipment  that 
would  render  them  of  any  service  in  battle.  Instead  they 
are  to  do  carting  for  the  army  and  work  for  the  leaders 
while  they  are  away  fighting.  The  Anglo-Saxon  conquest 
of  England  seems  to  have  been  more  thorough  than  that  of 
the  Lombards  even  in  Lombardy  itself.  The  Anglo-Saxons 
established  a  Teutonic  language  throughout  England  and 
later  developed  a  written  literature  and  formed  a  united 
state  and  nation.  Before  the  Lombards  could  accomplish 
this,  they  were  conquered  by  the  Franks,  and  the  union  of 
Italy  was  put  off  until  the  nineteenth  century. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 
A.  The  Primary  Sources 

Life  of  St.  Columban  by  the  Monk  Jonas. 

Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  ii,  no.  7, 
pp.  2-36.  (This  exercise  will  be  found  too  long  for  one  day's  assign- 
ment.) 

1.  What  information  is  given  concerning  Ireland  and  its  civilization 
at  this  period? 

2.  With  the  aid  of  the  index  of  an  historical  atlas  trace  the  wander- 
ings of  Columban  from  his  landing  in  Brittany  to  his  final  settle- 
ment at  Bobbio  in  northern  Italy,  locating  upon  an  outline  map 
the  various  places  which  he  visited. 

3.  Characterize  Columban's  education  and  learning. 

4.  What  book  is  quoted  most  by  the  author  of  this  biography? 

5.  Characterize  Columban's  relations  with  and  attitude  toward  the 
monarchs  and  states  of  his  time.  How  does  his  career  illustrate 
the  power  of  the  Church  over  the  barbarians? 

6.  Describe  Columban's  relations  with  animals. 

7.  Of  the  many  miracles  recounted  in  this  Life,  select  at  least  one 
example  of  each  of  the  following:  (a)  obvious  imitation  of  miracles 


GREGORY  THE   GREAT  171 

described  in  the  Bible;   (b)   trivial  coincidences  or  fortunate 
occurrences  which  the  imagination  of  the  time  has  exalted  to  the 
miraculous;  (c)  miracles  which  do  not  seem  necessary  nor  mor- 
ally justifiable. 
8.  Find  a  passage  containing  allegorical  interpretation. 

Passages  from  the  Writings  of  Gregory  the  Great. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  selections  numbered  28, 
29,  30,  31,  35,  37. 

The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict. 

Henderson,  Select  Historical  Documents  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  274-314. 
Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  432-84. 

Extracts  from  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History. 

Robinson,  Readings,  supra,  vol.  I,  selections  38  to  42  (pp.  93-105). 

The  Career  of  Boniface. 

Robinson,  Readings,  supra,  vol.  i,  selections  43  to  46  (pp.  105-11). 

B.  Secondary  Accounts 

Gregory  the  Great. 

Cambridge  Medieval  History,  chap.  8B,  by  W.  H.  Hutton;  or  a  chapter 
of  Dudden's  two-volume  Gregory  the  Great. 

Celtic  Monasticism. 

H.  B.  Workman,   The  Evolution  of  the  Monastic  Ideal,  pp.   183-216, 
omitting  the  footnotes. 

The  Economic  Influence  of  the  Monasteries. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  129-36. 

Faith  and  Morals  of  the  Franks. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  60-86. 

Christian  Missions  in  Gaul  and  Germany. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  114-28. 

C.   Map  Exercise 

Italy  at  the  Time  of  Gregory  the  Great. 

Upon  an  outline  map  of  Italy  indicate  the  Lombard  Kingdom,  the  Duch- 
ies of  Friuli,  Spoleto,  and  Benevento,  and  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    RISE   AND   SPREAD   OF   MOHAMMEDANISM 

While  monks  were  spreading  Christianity  in  the  West, 
a  new  Oriental  religion  arose  in  Arabia  under  the  leader- 
^,  ,  ,  ship  of  the  prophet,  Mohammed,  who  was  born 
before  about  570  in  Mecca,  a  small  trading-town  fifty 

amme  j^jjgg  from  the  Red  Sea.  Of  conditions  in  Ara- 
bia before  Mohammed  we  know  very  little.  The  Arabs 
or  Saracens  had  made  raids  into  the  Byzantine  Empire 
and  had  also  been  employed  by  it  as  mercenaries.  Most 
of  them  led  a  semi-nomadic  life  in  their  desert  countr>% 
much  of  which  is  still  unexplored  by  outsiders.  From  this 
region  waves  of  invasion  had  swept  over  the  fertile  Tigris- 
Euphrates  river  basin  in  ages  long  before  the  days  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  The  Arabs  could  not  read  or  write,  but 
were  fond  of  extemporized  poetry,  in  which  they  drew  a 
somewhat  Idealized  portrait  of  themselves  as  generous, 
hospitable,  truthful,  and  chivalrous  bandits.  There  was  no 
political  organization.  Society  was  In  the  tribal  state  and 
blood  feuds  prevailed  between  the  clans.  There  were, 
however,  some  social  distinctions  and  a  certain  amount  of 
wealth  and  luxury.  Slavery  and  polygamy  both  existed  and 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  sexual  Immorality.  The  various 
tribes  differed  considerably  in  their  degree  of  civilization. 
Some  had  been  more  or  less  converted  to  Christianity  or  to 
Judaism;  others  still  adhered  to  simple  and  rude  rites  that 
were  suggestive  of  primitive  man's  religion.  On  the  whole, 
we  do  not  know  enough  of  religious  conditions  In  Arabia 
before  Mohammed  to  tell  how  far  he  was  indebted  to  pre- 
vious faiths  and  worships. 

The  sources  about  Mohammed  himself  are  much  more 
satisfactory,  although  It  Is  hard  for  Western  historians  both 
to  appreciate  and  to  discount  their  Oriental  spirit  and 
psychology.   The  Koran,  a  collection  of  the  prophetic  utter- 


THE   RISE  OF   MOHAMMEDANISM  173 

ances  given  out  by  him  from  time  to  time  as  divine  revela- 
tions, was  put  together  two  years  after  his  death  sources 
in  substantially  the  form  that  we  possess  to-day.  concerning 

^  f  .  Ill  1'  11  Mohammed 

Some  01  Its  passages  had  been  dictated  and  pre- 
served; others  were  supplied  by  his  followers  from  mem- 
ory after  his  death.  It  contains  about  two  thirds  as  many 
verses  as  the  New  Testament.  From  the  eighth  and  ninth 
centuries  come  Moslem  biographies  of  Mohammed  and 
collections  of  Moslem  tradition.  These  are  necessary  to 
interpret  the  meaning  of  the  Koran,  which  does  not  date 
the  prophet's  utterances  or  give  them  in  the  order  of  their 
delivery,  but  its  chapters  are  arranged  according  to  length. 
Inasmuch  as  some  parts  of  the  Koran  enjoin  what  others 
forbid,  it  is  important  to  know  which  passage  was  Moham- 
med's last  word  upon  the  point  in  question.  Also  the 
Koran  is  full  of  allusions  to  persons  and  things  which  were 
probably  familiar  enough  at  the  time,  but  which  require 
explanation  for  later  readers. 

Mohammed  came  of  a  prominent  family  of  Mecca,  but 
was  early  left  an  orphan  under  an  uncle's  care.  After  suffer- 
ing some  hardships  from  poverty,  he  became,  p  ^  Q^g^^^ 
when  about  twenty-five,  the  business  agent  of  a  of  Moham- 
rich  widow,  whom  he  presently  married  upon 
his  return  from  a  successful  commercial  trip  to  Syria.  He 
was  of  medium  height,  with  a  large  head  and  broad  shoul- 
ders; and  was  good-looking,  with  large  black  eyes,  dark 
brows  and  lashes,  long  hair,  and  a  full  beard  from  which  his 
white  teeth  flashed.  His  hand  was  soft  and  his  health  deli- 
cate. We  are  told  that  he  disliked  strong  odors,  dirty  cloth- 
ing, and  unkempt  hair.  He  spent  much  time  in  fasts  and 
vigils,  was  nervous  and  hysterical,  often  in  low  spirits,  and 
subject  to  seizures  in  which  he  seemed  to  be  in  a  violent  fever. 
It  was  during  these  paroxysms  that  he  was  believed  to  be 
divinely  inspired  and  that  he  indited  portions  of  the  Koran. 
He  probably  could  not  read  or  write  and  lacked  the  common 
Arabian  fondness  for  poetry.  He  was  affectionate  and  hu- 
mane by  nature,  but  persevering  in  gaining  his  ends.  His 
enemies  have  accused  him  of  gross  passion,  but  his  defend- 


174      THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ers  hold  that  he  was  always  faithful  to  his  first  wife,  and  that 
of  the  dozen  or  more  wives  whom  he  had  in  his  later  years 
some  were  widows  of  his  dead  warriors  whom  he  married  to 
protect,  while  others  were  married  to  cement  political  alli- 
ances or  in  the  hope  of  securing  an  heir  to  succeed  him. 

It  was  not  until  he  was  about  forty  years  old  that  the 
"dreamer  of  the  desert"  began  his  prophetic  seances  and 
His  teaching  religious  teaching.  After  four  years  he  had  won 
beforeThe  about  thirty  converts.  Few  of  his  early  revela- 
Hegira  tions  are  preserved  in  the  Koran ;  his  teaching  at 

first  was  private  and  most  of  his  converts  were  slaves  and 
lowly  persons.  When  these  were  ill-treated  by  the  other 
Meccans,  they  fled  to  Abyssinia,  but  Mohammed's  influen- 
tial kinsmen  continued  to  afford  him  protection.  Near 
Mecca  was  held  annually  a  festival  which  crowds  of  pil- 
grims attended,  and  in  Mohammed's  time  they  also  came 
into  Mecca  to  visit  the  "Cube"  (Kaaba),  a  building  of  that 
shape  containing  various  sacred  objects,  images,  and  paint- 
ings. To  these  pilgrims  Mohammed  often  preached,  but 
without  much  success  until  finally  some  men  from  Medina 
were  impressed  by  his  teaching  and  offered  a  refuge  to  him 
and  his  followers.  Medina  was  torn  by  the  feuds  of  Jewish 
tribes  and  was  ready  to  welcome  a  leader  from  outside. 
Accordingly,  in  622  occurred  the  flight,  or  Hegira,  of  Mo- 
hammed and  his  followers  from  Mecca  to  Medina,  an  event 
from  which  the  Mohammedan  world  dates  its  era.  The 
Mohammedan  year,  as  later  decreed  by  the  prophet,  con- 
sists of  twelve  lunar  months,  or  only  three  hundred  and 
fifty-four  days. 

Islam  is  the  Arabic  name  for  the  religion  founded  by  Mo- 
hammed, and  his  followers  called  themselves  Muslimin,  or 
Moslems.  Both  words  carry  the  idea  of  surrender. 
His  ideal  was  submission  to  the  divine  will  and 
a  brotherhood  of  equals,  within  which  there  should  be  no 
dissension  or  injury.  His  early  teachings  emphasized  that 
there  is  only  one  God,  "the  merciful,  the  compassionate," 
and  that  before  every  man  lies  a  day  of  reckoning  and  final 
judgment.  He  attacked  idolatry.  He  believed  in  the  exist- 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  175 

ence  of  Gabriel  and  other  angels,  but  refused  to  recognize 
Christ  as  the  son  of  God,  although  admitting  that  he  was  a 
prophet.  Like  Gregory  the  Great,  Mohammed  seems  to 
have  believed  that  the  end  of  this  world  was  close  at  hand, 
though  he  always  refused  to  set  a  date.  Like  Gregory,  too, 
who  at  Constantinople  had  strenuously  opposed  the  doctrine 
that  the  resurrected  body  will  be  impalpable,  Mohammed 
believed  absolutely  in  a  physical  after  life.  For  the  Arabs, 
whose  ideas  of  the  life  after  death  had  hitherto  been  rather 
hazy,  he  drew  a  vivid  picture  of  the  torments  of  the  damned 
and  the  sensual  delights  of  Paradise  reserved  for  those  who 
have  been  true  believers.  While,  however,  he  both  permit- 
ted and  practiced  the  previous  Arabian  custom  of  polygamy, 
he  ordered  that  fornicators  should  be  whipped,  and  he 
prohibited  the  exposing  of  infants.  He  also  somewhat  im- 
proved the  position  of  women  and  of  slaves  in  Arabian 
society.  He  enjoined  frequent  ablutions  upon  his  followers 
and  "made  the  use  of  the  toothpick  almost  a  religious  or- 
dinance." He  also  forbade  certain  articles  of  food  and  the 
drinking  of  wine.  In  all  this  he  in  large  measure  may  have 
been  simply  perpetuating  primitive  notions  of  ceremonial 
purity  and  taboo.  Yet  his  religion  is  probably  the  first  to 
emphasize  physical  cleanliness  and  to  prohibit  the  use  of 
alcohol.  Among  Christians  even  monks  were  allowed  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  wine  every  day  by  the  Benedictine  Rule, 
although  it  forbade  them  to  eat  meat  except  in  case  of 
sickness.  Mohammed  commanded  his  followers  to  forgive 
those  who  injured  them,  not  to  seek  vengeance,  and  to  give 
alms  to  the  poor.  Moslems  were  to  pray  five  times  a  day, 
to  attend  a  public  religious  service  every  Friday,  and  to  fast 
during  one  month  each  year  from  sunrise  to  sunset  of  each 
day.  Islam  has  so  many  points  in  common  with  Judaism 
and  Christianity  that  Mohammed  has  been  charged  with 
borrowing  from  both  those  faiths,  but  his  knowledge  of  them 
seems  to  have  been  extremely  vague. 

At  Medina,  Mohammed  and  his  fellow-refugees  found  it 
difficult  to  earn  a  living  and  soon  resorted  to  plundering 
caravans  for  a  livelihood,  a  practice  which  they  justified  upon 


176        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  ground  that  the  merchants  were  idolaters  and  unbe- 
Spread  of  Hevers.  They  won  great  prestige  by  what  seemed 
Islam  before    iq  contemporaries  their  miraculous  victory  in  a 

Moham-  .  ^      .       , 

med's  death  series  oi  smgle  combats  over  the  members  of 
(622-632)  ^  larger  band  of  Meccans  who  tried  to  check 
their  pillaging.  In  Medina,  too,  Mohammed  strengthened 
his  authority  and  provided  funds  for  his  followers  by  exiling 
the  hostile  Jewish  clans  and  confiscating  their  property. 
Other  obnoxious  individuals  were  assassinated,  and  once 
some  six  hundred  Jews  who  would  not  accept  Islam  were 
executed  in  cold  blood  and  their  women  and  children  were 
sold  into  slavery.  Thus  the  new  religion  began  early  to  take 
on  the  ruthless  and  sordid  features  of  conquest  and  tribute, 
and  the  persecuted  prophet  rapidly  transformed  himself  into 
a  religious  despot  and  national  legislator.  Mecca  continued 
to  oppose  Mohammed  with  increasing  forces,  but  he  weath- 
ered her  attacks  and  gradually  won  the  Bedouins  of  the 
desert  to  his  side.  Finally,  in  630,  he  entered  Mecca  prac- 
tically unopposed  and  in  triumph.  He  pardoned  almost 
every  one,  and,  while  he  destroyed  idols,  images,  and  pic- 
tures throughout  the  city,  he  preserved  the  famous  "Cube" 
and  left  the  much  venerated  black  stone  embedded  in  its 
wall  to  be  kissed  by  future  generations  of  Moslems  from 
all  parts  of  the  globe.  For  he  made  the  annual  pilgrimage 
to  Mecca  a  feature  of  his  own  religion.  Mohammed  defeated 
a  hostile  coalition  of  Bedouin  tribes,  and  had  begun  raids 
upon  the  Byzantine  Empire  before  his  death  in  632,  but  it 
is  doubtful  if  all  Arabia  had  by  that  time  been  converted 
to  Islam. 

Islam  was,  at  any  rate,  supreme  by  that  time  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Mecca  and  Medina,  and  within  a  very  few  5'ears  the 
Conquests  astonishingly  successful  expeditions  of  the  Mos- 
tines  and  ^"'  lems  against  Syria  and  Babylonia  drew  the  other 
Persians  Arab  tribes  out  of  their  deserts  into  a  career  of 
conquest  and  booty,  and  also  into  the  bosom  of  Islam.  The 
Moslem  leader,  Khalid,  proved  a  very  able  general  and  won 
a  remarkable  succession  of  victories.  Persia  and  Constanti- 
nople had  just  concluded  peace  in  628,  after  having  fought 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  177 

each  other  to  a  standstill,  if  not  to  the  point  of  prostration, 
in  a  long  series  of  wars.  Heraclius  had  recovered  Syria  and 
Egypt,  but  these  provinces  were  out  of  sympathy  with  Con- 
stantinople in  religious  matters  and  found  their  return  to 
Byzantine  taxation  oppressive.  Moreover,  in  Syria  —  and 
this  was  also  true  of  Babylonia,  the  part  of  the  Persian 
Kingdom  next  to  Arabia  —  the  mass  of  the  population  was 
Semitic,  and  so  more  in  sympathy  with  the  Arabs  than 
with  the  Greeks  of  Constantin6ple  or  the  Indo-Europeans 
of  Persia.  Within  five  years  after  Mohammed's  death  the 
Arabs  had  seized  all  Syria  except  Jerusalem  and  Caesarea, 
They  gained  Babylonia  by  a  victory  in  637  and  advanced  to 
the  Tigris,  where  the  rich  capital  Ctesiphon  was  abandoned 
to  them  without  a  struggle.  Mesopotamia  was  overrun  in 
641,  and  in  ten  years  more  the  remainder  of  the  Persian 
Kingdom  had  been  conquered  and  its  independent  existence 
ended.  Egypt,  where  the  new  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  had 
been  persecuting  the  Coptic  Church,  was  conquered  in  the 
years  639-643.  The  Arabs  next  took  to  the  sea,  destroyed  a 
large  Byzantine  fleet,  and  occupied  the  islands  of  Cyprus 
and  Rhodes.  Meantime  by  land  they  pushed  west  from 
Egypt  into  Tripoli  and  north  from  Mesopotamia  into  Ar- 
menia. In  669  they  advanced  through  Asia  Minor  to  Chalce- 
don,  crossed  into  Thrace  and  attacked  Constantinople,  but 
were  repulsed.  Then  each  year  until  677  they  made  sea 
attacks  upon  the  city,  but  all  were  failures,  and  the  Arabs 
also  withdrew  from  Rhodes.  Nor  for  the  remainder  of  the 
seventh  century  were  they  able  to  make  any  permanent 
advance  into  Asia  Minor.  In  716  Constantinople  was  once 
more  attacked,  but  as  usual  weathered  the  storm. 

The  Arabs  did  not  force  their  conquered  subjects  to  adopt 
Islam;  they  were  willing  to  accept  tribute  from  them  in- 
stead and  tolerated  all  Christian  sects  equally.  Arabian 
Thus,  some  long-suffering  heretical  communities  of  the 
became  free  from  persecution  for  the  first  time,  conquered 
And  the  tribute  was  not  as  heavy  as  the  imperial  taxation 
had  been.    If,  however,  one  turned  Moslem,  one  no  longer 
had  to  pay  tribute  and  was  far  more  likely  to  attain  political 


178        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

advancement.  As  a  result  the  Copts  In  Egypt  professed  ad- 
herence to  Islam  so  rapidly  that  the  amount  of  the  tribute 
fell  off  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  from  twelve  to  five  mil- 
lions. When  one  had  once  become  a  Mohammedan,  one 
could  not  return  to  one's  previous  faith  without  incurring 
the  death  penalty.  The  Arabs  themselves  did  not  per- 
manently remain  fanatical  or  puritanical,  but  were  often 
inclined  to  good  living  and  to  skepticism,  and  were  easy- 
going in  their  interpretation  of  religious  rules.  They  also  were 
slow  to  make  any  great  change  in  the  governmental  ma- 
chinery of  lands  which  they  conquered ;  so  long  as  the  trib- 
ute came  in  regularly,  they  were  content  to  leave  Byzantine 
and  Persian  institutions  much  as  they  found  them.  The 
condition  of  serfs  and  slaves  frequently  improved  under  the 
Mohammedan  rule  of  this  period,  and  they  were  often 
emancipated  by  their  new  Arabian  masters,  especially  if 
they  embraced  the  faith  of  the  Prophet. 

Because  of  the  opposition  of  the  wild  Berber  tribes  as  well 
as  of  the  Byzantines,  it  took  the  Moslems  over  half  a  cen- 
Conquest  of  tury  to  conquer  North  Africa.  Carthage  did  not 
North  Africa  f^y  ^^til  697-698,  and  the  western  Berbers, 
whom  Justinian  had  been  unable  to  subdue,  were  not  ab- 
sorbed by  Islam  until  the  early  years  of  the  following  cen- 
tury. Ancient  civilization  now  rapidly  disappeared  in 
Africa,  a  loss  due  more  to  the  Berbers  than  to  the  Arabs  or 
Vandals,  and  this  once  extremely  prosperous  region  became 
desolate.  Only  the  Christian  Church  lived  on  in  Africa  in 
decreasing  strength  for  centuries.  The  Berber  tribes,  whose 
mode  of  life  and  state  of  civilization  was  similar  to  that 
of  the  nomads  of  the  Arabian  desert,  for  the  most  part 
accepted  Islam,  and  many  of  them  swept  on  westward  in  the 
wave  of  conquest. 

Spain  was  the  next  objective  of  the  Moslems.  A  deposed 
king  fled  to  them  for  aid  against  his  supplanter.  The  Visi- 
Conquest  gothic  Kingdom  was  also  weakened  by  its  per- 
of  Spam  secution  of  the  Jews  and  by  the  selfish  treachery 
of  the  nobles.  In  711,  Tarik,  lieutenant  of  the  Moslem 
governor  of  Mauretania,  Musa  ibn  Nusair,  landed  near  the 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM     "'"     179 

rock  named  after  him  Gibraltar  {Gebel  Tarik),  and,  before 
the  year  was  out,  had  defeated  King  Roderi'ck  and  over- 
run half  of  Spain.  Many  fortified  towns  still  held  out,  how- 
ever. Musa  now  arrived  with  reinforcements,  compelled 
the  towns  to  capitulate,  won  another  great  victory  in  713, 
and  proclaimed  the  rule  of  the  caliph  in  the  Gothic  capi- 
tal, Toledo.  In  the  mountains  along  the  northern  coast  of 
Spain,  however.  Christian  communities  succeeded  in  main- 
taining their  independence. 

After  their  rapid  and  easy  conquest  of  most  of  the  Span- 
ish peninsula,  the  Arabs  and  Berbers  saw  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  press  on  farther.  They  began  to  ^rabs 
cross  the  Pyrenees  just  about  as  a  great  attack  checked  by 
was  being  made  upon  Constantinople  by  their 
co-religionists  in  the  East.  By  720,  they  had  occupied  Septi- 
mania  or  Narbonne,  the  territory  which  the  Visigoths  had 
still  held  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  Aquitaine,  which  the  Goths 
had  lost  to  Clovis  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  was  at 
present  under  the  rule  of  an  independent  duke,  Eudes,  who 
only  nominally  recognized  the  Prankish  kings  of  Neustria 
and  Austrasia  and  their  vigorous  representative,  Charles 
Martel,  mayor  of  the  palace.  Eudes  unaided  for  a  time  held 
the  Moslems  in  check,  but  in  732  they  prepared  a  great  ex- 
pedition which  defeated  him  and  forced  him  to  appeal  to 
Charles  Martel  for  aid.  To-day  one  taking  an  express  train 
from  Bordeaux  to  Paris  passes  through  the  towns  of  Poitiers 
and  Tours.  This  was  the  route  the  Moslems  took.  Between 
Poitiers  and  Tours  they  were  met  by  the  Franks  under 
Charles  Martel  and  decisively  defeated.  A  few  years  later 
he  also  prevented  them  from  entering  the  Rhone  Valley; 
but,  although  he  devastated  Septimania,  it  was  not  until 
769  that  his  son  Pepin  finally  drove  the  Moslems  south  of 
the  Pyrenees.  In  such  wise  the  warlike  Franks,  with  their 
superior  physique,  set  a  limit  to  the  westward  expansion  of 
Islam,  just  as  in  eastern  Europe  Constantinople  was  a  bar- 
rier which  they  could  not  break  down.  As  the  Huns,  operat- 
ing from  the  east  and  north,  had  failed  to  take  Constanti- 
nople or  to  penetrate  to  the  heart  of  Gaul,  so  the  Arabs, 


i8o        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

operating  from  the  east  and  south,  had  met  with  the  same 
failure. 

Mohammed  had  died  without  naming  a  successor,  and, 
after  the  reigns  of  his  father-in-law,  Abu-Bekr,  and  of 
Mohamme-  Omar,  the  ablest  of  his  early  converts,  civil  wars 
dan  occurred  over  the  succession.    In  66i,  a  member 

>  nas  les  ^^  ^^^  Qmmiad  (or  Umayyad)  family,  which  rep- 
resented the  Meccan  aristocracy  and  the  interests  of  Syria, 
became  caliph,  a  title  meaning  the  representative  or  suc- 
cessor of  Mohammed  and  so  both  the  religious  and  political 
head  of  the  Moslem  world.  He  transferred  the  capital  from 
Medina  to  Damascus.  Under  the  Caliph  Walid  (705-715), 
the  Qmmiad  dynasty  reached  the  height  of  its  prosperity, 
maintaining  a  court  of  brilliant  culture,  with  poets  and 
scholars,  and  erecting  imposing  mosques  at  Damascus  and 
Jerusalem.  During  his  reign  the  Arabs  not  only  conquered 
Spain  in  the  West,  but  ranged  as  far  east  as  the  borders  of 
India  and  China.  In  750,  the  Ommiads,  to  whom  there  had 
always  been  much  opposition  in  the  East,  and  who  were  now 
weakened  by  feuds  among  themselves,  gave  way  to  the 
Abbassids  (750-1258),  a  Persian  dynasty  claiming  descent 
from  Mohammed's  uncle,  Abbas.  They  moved  the  capital 
farther  east  to  Bagdad.  But  the  western  part  of  the  Moslem 
world  broke  away  from  their  rule.  The  Ommiad  Abd-er- 
Rahman,  after  five  years  of  wandering,  escaped  to  Spain  and 
was  recognized  as  emir  at  Cordova.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  929  that  Abd-er-Rahman  III  assumed  the  title  of 
caliph,  and  that  it  is  strictly  correct  to  speak  of  the  Caliph- 
ate of  Cordova.  Several  independent  Moslem  states  also 
arose  in  North  Africa,  where  the  Berbers  always  inclined 
to  establish  governments  of  their  own ;  these  were  the  germs 
of  the  modern  Tunis,  Algeria,  and  Morocco.  Of  their  con- 
quests in  Sicily  and  Italy  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  speak  elsewhere.  In  909,  the  Fat- 
imites,  so-called  from  Fatima,  the  daughter  of  Mohammed, 
came  into  power  in  North  Africa.  In  969,  they  conquered 
Egypt  from  the  Abbassids,  founded  the  city  of  Cairo,  and 
henceforth  made  Egypt  the  center  of  their  activities,  losing 


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The   Mohammedan  World 
about    732 

Scale  of  Miles 
0        100     200      M  OOO 

Vm////A    Territory  overrun  by  Mohammedans 

N^'\?^x^    The  Byzantine  Empire 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  i8i 

most  of  their  power  in  the  West,  but  adding  Syria  to  their 
possessions. 

Although  great  conquerors,  the  Arabs  lacked  the  genius 
for  lawmaking  and  empire-building  of  the  ancient  Romans. 
Never  having  developed  a  state  worthy  of  the  Arabian 
name  in  their  native  country,  they  could  hardly  Politics 
be  expected  to  prove  equal  of  a  sudden  to  the  creation  of 
a  vast  empire.  Consequently  their  states  seldom  held  to- 
gether for  a  long  period.  Both  Arabs  and  Berbers  naturally 
inclined  toward  the  unorganized  freedom  of  the  desert,  ex- 
cept that  certain  families  regarded  themselves  as  aristo- 
crats, and  that  the  Arabs  were  prone  to  consider  themselves 
superior  to  the  rest  of  the  population,  whether  unbelievers 
or  converts  to  Islam.  Therefore,  while  ambitious  and  able 
individuals  often  made  use  of  the  religious  fanaticism  of  the 
masses  to  raise  themselves  to  supreme  power,  and  then 
ruled  in  the  manner  of  Oriental  despots,  they  had  to  be  on 
their  guard  against  the  aristocracy  and  against  the  instinct 
toward  freedom.  Mohammed  had  ratified  the  relationship 
of  patron  and  client  which  already  existed  among  the  Arabs, 
and  the  Moslem  leaders  rewarded  their  followers  with  grants 
of  land,  so  that  there  was  in  the  Middle  Ages  much  the 
same  tendency  toward  feudalism  in  the  Mohammedan  as 
in  the  Christian  world. 

Although  the  Arabs  lacked  the  Roman  genius  for  govern- 
ment, they  rivaled  the  Romans  as  adapters,  preservers, 
and  spreaders  of  civilization.  The  Koran,  it  is  civilization 
true,  is  not  favorable  to  philosophical  speculation  °^  ^^^^"^ 
or  to  the  scientific  attitude,  and  the  narrowly  orthodox  Mos- 
lem might  hold  that  to  commit  the  sacred  book  to  memory 
was  a  sufficient  education,  and  that  it  contained  the  entire 
law  and  theology  of  Islam.  Nevertheless,  learned  Greeks, 
Syrians,  and  Persians  living  under  Mohammedan  rule  were 
not  bound  by  such  scruples.  And  as  the  Arabs  left  behind 
their  rude  life  in  the  desert  and  came  in  contact  with  the 
Hellenistic  culture  that  was  spread  through  the  East,  their 
mental  horizon  and  sympathies  expanded  beyond  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  Koran.    Moreover,  the   Koran  itself 


i82        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

required  interpretation,  and  so  furnished  a  pretext  for  fur- 
ther discussion  and  writing.  The  courts  of  Damascus,  Bag- 
dad, home  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  Cairo,  and  Cordova  were 
renowned  each  in  turn  for  luxury,  culture,  and  learning. 
The  caliphs  were  in  the  main  broad-minded  and  munifi- 
cent patrons  of  the  arts  and  letters.  Therefore,  while  in  the 
Christian  West  civilization  had  sunk  so  low  that  actually 
monasteries,  where  men's  thoughts  were  supposed  to  be 
centered  on  another  world,  were  its  mainstay,  in  the  Mo- 
hammedan Orient  and  in  Spain  civilization  was  not  merely 
preserved,  but  in  some  respects  progressed.  The  Moors  or 
Berbers  in  North  Africa  remained,  on  the  other  hand,  in  a 
state  of  barbarism,  and  there  were  backward  races  waiting 
in  the  East  who  would  one  day  submerge  both  Byzantine 
and  Bagdad  culture. 

The  Arabic  language  was  spread  widely  through  the  ex- 
tensive Mohammedan  conquests.  In  Spain  by  the  ninth 
Language  century  even  the  Christians  had  become  fasci- 
and  liter-  nated  by  Arabian  literature.  In  854,  an  ecclesi- 
astical writer  complained  bitterly  that  Latin  was 
neglected,  that  no  one  read  the  church  fathers  or  the  Scrip- 
tures, or  could  even  compose  a  respectable  letter  in  Latin  to 
a  friend.  On  the  contrary.  Christians  took  delight  in  the 
poetry  and  romances  of  the  Arabs,  and  even  studied  their 
philosophy  and  theology,  not  to  refute  their  errors,  but  to 
imitate  their  eloquence  and  elegance  of  style.  Christians 
collected  libraries  of  Arabian  works,  and  many  were  able  to 
write  verses  as  good  as  those  of  the  Arabs  themselves.  Our 
language  to-day  shows  in  a  number  of  words  the  influence 
of  the  Arabs  upon  our  civilization;  for  example,  "muslin" 
and  "mattress,"  "cupola"  and  "alcove,"  "algebra"  and 
"alchemy,"  "alcohol"  and  "almanac,"  are  words  of  Ara- 
bian origin. 

The  Arabs  soon  began  to  translate  the  chief  works  of  the 
Greek  philosophers  and  scientists  into  their  own  tongue, 
Arabian  although  these  translations  were  often  made 
learning  from  Syriac  or  Aramaic  versions  rather  than 

directly  from  the  Greek  original.    They  then  wrote  com- 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  183 

mentaries  upon  these  authorities,  or  made  compilations 
from  them,  or  produced  works  of  their  own  on  the  same 
subjects.  Medicine,  mathematics,  and  natural  science  were 
especially  cultivated  by  the  writers  in  Arabic ;  and  in  these 
fields  they  seem  to  have  learned  something  from  India  and 
the  Orient  as  well  as  from  the  ancient  Greeks.  The  Hindu- 
Arabic  numerals  were  almost  as  great  an  advance  in  mathe- 
matical notation  over  the  cumbrous  Greek  and  Roman 
numbers  as  the  phonetic  alphabet  of  the  Phoenicians  had 
been  over  Egyptian  hieroglyphs.  The  great  amount  of 
ground  covered  in  three  continents  by  the  Mohammedan 
possessions  gave  opportunity  for  extensive  travel,  and  we 
possess  important  works  by  Arabian  geographers  or  tourists 
of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  who  even  penetrated 
Russia.  The  Arabs  also  delved  a  good  deal  into  occult  sub- 
jects, and  wrote  many  works  of  astrology,  alchemy,  necro- 
mancy, and  various  arts  of  magic  and  divination.  A  long  list 
of  noted  Arabian  men  of  learning  has  come  down  to  us,  too 
long  to  include  here.  They  begin  at  Bagdad  in  the  ninth 
century  and  last  into  the  twelfth  century  in  Spain.  The 
Arabs  were  especially  impressed  by  the  writings  of  Aristotle, 
whose  philosophy  and  science  gained  greater  fame  and  au- 
thority in  their  hands  than  ever  before.  Life  in  the  harem 
and  the  position  of  woman  in  Moslem  society  do  not  accord 
with  Western  and  modern  standards,  but  it  was  a  poetess 
and  musician,  who  came  from  Bagdad  to  Spain  about  900, 
who  wrote,  "The  most  shameful  thing  in  the  world  is  igno- 
rance, and  if  ignorance  were  a  woman's  passport  to  Para- 
dise, I  would  far  rather  that  the  Creator  sent  me  to  hell!" 
Women,  indeed,  were  often  prominent  in  the  learned  world 
of  Moslem  Spain. 

The  spread  of  Islam  brought  into  close  commercial  rela- 
tions countries  stretching  from  India,  or  even  Korea  and 
Japan,  in  the  East  to  Spain  and  the  Atlantic  Mohamme- 
coast  of  northwestern  Africa.  The  Arabs  lined  ^^"-  ^''^^^ 
the  west  coast  of  India  with  trading-stations.  They  sup- 
plied distant  China  with  sugar,  dates,  rose-water,  camphor, 
cotton,  glassware,  and  wrought  iron,  especially  weapons  and 


i84        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

coats  of  mail.  From  the  Mediterranean  ports  of  North 
Africa  caravans  traded  with  the  interior  as  far  as  Lake 
Tschad  and  the  great  rivers  of  central  Africa.  From  Egypt 
and  Arabia  their  commerce  extended  far  down  the  east  coast 
of  the  same  continent.  Ships  from  Alexandria  and  Syria 
thronged  the  harbors  of  Almeria  and  other  Spanish  ports; 
and  poets,  musicians,  and  singing  girls  were  imported  from 
the  Orient  to  grace  the  courts  of  Mohammedan  Spain. 
Over  thirteen  thousand  Moslem  coins  dating  chiefly  before 
the  eleventh  century  have  been  found  in  the  far  northern 
provinces  of  Esthonia,  Livonia,  and  Courland  on  the  shores 
of  the  Baltic  Sea,  testifying  to  a  considerable  trade  across 
Russia. 

Under  the  Abbassids  Bagdad  rivaled  Constantinople  as 
the  mart  and  metropolis  of  the  world.  It  was  situated  on  the 
Bagdad  Tigris  a  few  miles  from  the  site  of  Ctesiphon,  the 

under  the  previous  Persian  capital,  and  not  far  from  the 
ruins  of  ancient  Babylon  on  the  Euphrates.  The 
caliphs  constructed  as  their  own  sumptuous  residence  a  cir- 
cular city,  somewhat  over  a  mile  in  diameter,  and  filled 
with  numerous  palaces  and  pleasure-houses,  parks  and  por- 
ticoes. Once,  to  avoid  the  mosquitoes,  the  caliph  not  only 
built  a  pavilion  upon  high  ground,  but  further  excluded  the 
insects  by  an  incantation.  About  this  round  city  grew  up 
various  quarters  and  suburbs  until  in  978  the  whole  me- 
tropolis was  five  miles  across.  There  was  the  Christian 
quarter  with  its  monasteries,  its  richly  adorned  Jacobite 
and  severely  plain  Nestorian  churches.  There  was  the  Har- 
biyah  quarter,  inhabited  largely  by  Turkish  and  Persian  im- 
migrants. There  were  the  Jews'  Bridge,  the  Suburb  of  the 
Persians,  the  Quadrangle  of  the  Persians,  the  Shops  of  the 
Persian  nobles,  and  the  Market  of  the  Syrian  Gate,  w^hence 
branched  in  all  directions  streets,  courts,  and  alleys,  each 
named  after  the  province  from  which  its  residents  had  orig- 
inally come. 

The  names  of  the  streets,  gates,  and  bridges  of  Bagdad 
also  give  us  a  picture  of  the  occupations  and  wares  of  the 
city.   We  hear  of  the  Market  of  the  Perfumers,  the  Market 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  185 

of  the  Money-Changers,  the  Straw  Merchants'  Bridge,  the 
Fief  of  the  Carpet-Spreaders,  the  Hay  Market,  Trades  and 
the  Gate  of  the  Horse  Market,  the  Tanners'  occupations 
Yard,  the  Four  Markets,  the  Upper  Barley  Gate,  the  Silk 
House,  the  Slaves'  Barracks,  the  Road  of  the  Cages,  the 
Fullers'  Road,  the  Gatehouse  of  the  Date  Market,  the 
Needle-Makers'  Wharf,  the  Archway  of  the  Armorers,  the 
Cotton  Market.  In  one  part  of  the  city  Chinese  goods  were 
for  sale,  in  another  the  famous  Attabi  stuffs  (whence  our 
expression  "tabby  cat"),  woven  in  variegated  colors  of  a 
mixture  of  silk  and  cotton.  Here  paper  was  manufactured 
of  rags  at  a  time  when  the  West  had  lost  the  papyrus  of 
antiquity  arid  was  forced  to  write  all  its  manuscripts  upon 
parchment  made  of  sheepskin.  Paper  was  originally  dis- 
covered by  the  Chinese  and  was  introduced  among  the 
Arabs  in  the  eighth  century,  when  factories  were  established 
at  Samarkand  and  Bagdad.  In  Bagdad,  too,  was  a  mill  with 
a  hundred  millstones,  said  to  have  been  built  for  an  early 
caliph  by  a  Byzantine  ambassador  possessed  of  engineering 
skill.  There  were  lanes  lined  with  great  warehouses  and 
streets  crowded  with  shops  and  bazaars,  —  twenty-four 
shops  of  the  weavers  of  palm  baskets,  forty-three  shops  of 
perfume  distillers,  sixteen  shops  of  drawers  of  gold  wire, 
and  over  a  hundred  booksellers'  establishments.  Bridges 
of  boats  seven  or  eight  hundred  feet  in  length  connected  the 
quarters  on  opposite  sides  of  the  Tigris.  An  orphan  school, 
—  for  Moslem  rulers  often  endowed  education  and  provided 
for  the  poor,  —  a  hospital,  an  assembly  hall  of  the  poets, 
jails,  cemeteries,  mosques,  and  in  East  Bagdad  alone  some 
thirty  colleges,  were  further  features  of  the  Paris  of  the 
Orient. 

This  Oriental  city  life  was  to  be  seen  on  a  somewhat 
smaller  scale  in  Spain,  although  not  much  smaller,  if  we 
accept  the  statements  of  Arabian  writers  that  Cordova  and 
Cordova,  the  political  and  religious  capital  of  other  Span- 
Mohammedan  Spain,  had  a  population  of  half  a 
million,  over  one  hundred  thousand  residences,  three  thou- 
sand mosques,  and  three  hundred  public  baths.   It  extended 


i86        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

for  three  miles  from  east  to  west  and  for  one  mile  from  the 
Bridge  Gate  to  Jews'  Gate.  It  was  famed  for  its  scholars 
and  merchants,  and  for  the  piety,  intelligence,  social  ele- 
gance, and  discriminating  taste  in  matters  of  dress,  food, 
and  drink,  of  its  inhabitants  in  general.  Its  crowning 
feature  was  the  great  mosque  with  its  sixty  attendants,  its 
thousand  columns,  its  one  hundred  and  thirty  candelabras, 
its  beautiful  ceilings,  arcades,  enamels,  its  mosaics  pre- 
sented by  the  Byzantine  emperor,  its  pulpit  of  ebony,  box, 
and  scented  woods,  on  whose  carvings  and  paintings  six 
master  workmen  and  their  assistants  had  labored  seven 
years,  and  its  tower  near  by,  whose  minaret  was  reached  by 
two  winding  staircases  which  never  met  until  the  very  top. 
Other  towns  of  Moslem  Spain  were  smaller  than  Cordova, 
yet  noted  for  their  commerce  or  manufactures.  Almeria  on 
the  southern  Mediterranean  coast  had  eight  hundred  silk 
looms,  nine  hundred  and  seventy  caravansaries  licensed  to 
sell  wine,  and  manufactures  of  copper  and  iron  utensils.  Its 
inhabitants  were  reputed  to  have  more  ready  cash  and 
greater  stores  of  capital  than  those  of  any  other  Spanish  city. 
Chincilla  produced  woolen  carpets  that  could  not  be  imi- 
tated elsewhere.  Tortosa  was  a  center  of  shipbuilding  ow- 
ing to  the  impermeability  of  its  pines  to  insects.  Seville, 
located  on  the  Guadalquivir  below  Cordova,  exported  its 
cotton  —  a  plant  introduced  into  Europe  by  the  Mohamme- 
dans —  and  olive  oils  to  East  and  West  by  land  and  sea. 
Other  places  were  noted  for  their  figs  and  raisins,  their 
drugs  and  colored  earths,  their  iron  industries  and  their 
draperies.  Mohammedan  Spain,  in  short,  seems  to  have 
been  very  prosperous,  and  we  hear  of  the  emir  or  caliph 
leaving  millions  of  gold  pieces  in  his  treasury  at  a  time 
when  money  was  very  scarce  in  Western  Christendom. 

The  Moslem  conquerors  usually  left  the  Spaniards  their 
own  laws  and  gave  them  native  counts  to  collect  the  taxes 
Moham-  ^"^  judge  disputes.  Unbelievers  paid  a  grad- 
medan  rule  uated  income  tax  according  to  their  wealth,  and 
in  pain  ^j^  landed  proprietors,  whether  converts  or  not, 
were  subjected  to  an  impost  upon  their  crops  averaging  one 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  187 

fifth.  In  the  process  of  conquest  a  considerable  amount  of 
land  had  been  confiscated  from  those  who  persisted  in  re- 
sistance. This  was  now  more  widely  distributed  than  before 
among  a  large  number  of  Moslem  proprietors.  Slaves  and 
serfs  went  with  the  land  as  before,  but  emancipation  was  to 
be  won  more  easily  than  hitherto,  especially  by  those  who 
ran  away  from  Christian  to  Moslem  masters.  These  changes 
were  not  especially  objectionable  to  the  majority  of  the 
population,  and  during  the  eighth  century  Christian  insur- 
rections were  almost  unknown.  As  time  went  on,  however, 
and  more  and  more  Christians  became  converts  to  Islam, 
the  government  treated  the  remainder  with  less  considera- 
tion. The  Mohammedan  rulers  had  always  controlled  the 
summoning  of  Christian  church  councils  by  the  clergy  in 
their  dominions,  and  they  also  sometimes  sold  the  offtce  of 
bishop  or  bestowed  it  upon  persons  objectionable  to  the 
Church.  As  the  Moslems  increased  in  numbers  there  was  a 
tendency  to  convert  the  cathedrals  into  mosques.  In  the 
ninth  century  the  Christians  were  subjected  to  new  and 
ruinous  taxation,  and  occasionally  to  such  decrees  as  that  all 
inhabitants  regardless  of  their  religion  must  be  circum- 
cised. Indeed,  the  government,  as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  in 
Mohammedan  countries,  tended  to  become  increasingly 
despotic. 

Moreover,   those  Christians  who  had  turned   Moslems 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  small  share  allowed  them  in  the 
government,   and  the  Berbers  and  Syrians  in  Revolts  and 
Spain  were  also  jealous  of  the  Arab  aristocracy.  the"ninth° 
The  result  was  a  series  of  revolts.    Indeed,  the  century 
Berbers,  who  had  been  assigned  by  the  Arabs  the  less  de- 
sirable northern  regions  of  Spain,  had  rebelled  soon  after  the 
conquest.   This  revolt  had  been  crushed  and,  together  with 
a  famine  of  five  years'  duration,  had  so  weakened  the  Ber- 
bers that  the  Christians  in  the  extreme  north  had  been  able 
to   push   them  back  and   recover  considerable  territory. 
Between  them  and  the  retreating  Berbers  there  lay  long  un- 
occupied a  wide  strip  of  land  which  had  been  denuded  by 
war  and  famine.    Toledo,  the  old  Visigothic  capital,  is  lo- 


i88        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

cated  almost  exactly  in  the  center  of  Spain,  so  that  an 
Arabian  geographer  described  it  as  nine  days'  journey  alike 
from  Lisbon  on  the  west  coast,  Cordova  in  the  south,  the 
Christian  pilgrim  shrine  of  St.  James  at  Compostella  in  the 
north,  and  from  Almeria  and  Valencia  on  the  Mediterra- 
nean coast.  Through  the  ninth  century  it  was  usually  at  war 
with  the  Sultan  at  Cordova  and  in  alliance  with  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  north.  Around  Toledo  in  central  Spain  various 
Berber  tribes  were  often  at  war  with  one  another.  In  the 
south,  in  Andalusia,  the  real  home  of  Arabic  civilization  in 
Spain,  extending  from  Lisbon  on  the  Atlantic  almost  to 
Barcelona  on  the  Mediterranean  coast,  all  was  in  revolt 
against  the  government  of  Cordova  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  ninth  century.  Bandits  abounded  and  many 
nobles  had  turned  brigands,  so  that  a  trip  across  Spain 
was  a  perilous  undertaking.  By  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century  the  Fatimites  were  menacing  Spain  from  North 
Africa. 

Abd-er-Rahman  III  (912-961)  restored  the  power  of 
Cordova,  put  down  the  rebellious  nobles,  held  Ceuta  oppo- 
The  great  site  Gibraltar  against  the  Fatimites,  drove  back 
the^ent°h  the  Christians  of  the  north,  took  Toledo,  and 
century  amasscd  a  treasure  of  twenty  million  pieces  of 

gold.  His  police  maintained  perfect  order  throughout  the 
land ;  prices  were  low  and  almost  every  one  could  dress  well 
and  afford  a  mule;  Abd-er-Rahman  assumed  the  title  of 
caliph  and  built  a  new  city  just  outside  Cordova  with  a 
splendid  palace  for  his  harem  of  six  thousand  beauties.  His 
successor,  Hakam  II,  was  the  most  learned  of  the  Spanish 
Moslem  rulers.  He  patronized  scholars  regardless  of  their 
nationality,  religion,  or  irreligion,  and  founded  many  free 
schools  for  poor  children  in  Cordova.  The  catalogue  of  his 
library  is  said  to  have  filled  two  thousand  pages.  The  next 
caliph  was  a  mere  figurehead  and  the  government  was 
managed  by  his  minister,  Almansor,  until  his  death  in  1002. 
Almansor  is  credited  with  over  fifty  campaigns  against  the 
Christians  of  northern  Spain,  where  he  made  the  Kingdom 
of  Leon  tributary  and  utterly  demolished  its  capital.    He 


THE   RISE   OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  189 

also  sacked  Compostella  and  Barcelona.  Forty  poets  ac- 
companied him  upon  one  of  these  northern  expeditions;  he 
constructed  many  roads  and  bridges,  and  enlarged  the  great 
mosque  of  Cordova;  but  he  allowed  the  orthodox  theolo- 
gians to  purge  Hakam's  library  of  objectionable  works  of 
philosophy  and  astronomy. 

The  old  Arab  nobility  had  lost  all  its  influence  during  the 
recent  despotic  reigns,  and,  when  no  able  successor  to  Al- 
mansor  appeared,  the  power  fell  into  the  hands  of  ^  ,  ,  , 
Berber -generals  and  of  the  "Slavs."  This  name  Caliphate 
was  at  first  applied  to  the  captives  from  Slavonic  anarchy^or 
Europe  whom  the  East  Franks  and  Byzantines  the  eleventh 
sold  as  slaves  to  the  Saracens.  Then  it  was  used 
to  designate  also  Italians  and  others  who  were  captured  by 
Saracen  pirates  or  purchased  as  children  by  Jewish  slave- 
traders.  Finally  it  came  to  denote  all  foreigners  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  caliph,  whether  as  retainers  in  his  bodyguard, 
eunuchs  in  his  harem,  or  officials  at  his  court.  Abd-er- 
Rahman  III  had  entrusted  many  important  posts  both  civil 
and  military  to  such  foreigners  in  place  of  the  troublesome 
old  aristocracy.  Now,  after  Almansor's  death  a  period  of 
civil  war  set  in.  After  bloody  conflicts  between  divers  candi- 
dates for  the  throne,  in  which  the  Berbers  and  "Slavs" 
participated,  and  in  which  both  sides  called  in  aid  from 
Castile  and  Catalonia  and  gave  away  fortresses  and  territory 
to  secure  Christian  aid,  and  in  which  Cordova  and  other 
cities  were  sacked  and  half  destroyed,  the  Caliphate  of  Cor- 
dova came  formally  to  a  close  in  1036.  Cordova  and  Seville 
now  became  republics;  Berber  chieftains  divided  up  the 
south,  where  Malaga  and  Granada  were  two  of  the  chief 
states;  and  the  "Slavs"  ruled  the  east,  where  the  leading 
princes  were  those  of  Almeria  and  of  the  Balearic  Isles. 
Toledo  again  became  a  separate  state;  Arab  families  ruled 
at  Valencia  and  Saragossa ;  and  there  were  yet  other  princi- 
palities. 

When  we  consider  how  many  followers  of  Mohammed  there 
are  to-day  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  even  in  Europe,  and  in  the 
distant  islands  of  the  South  Seas,  we  observe  one  great  result 


I90      THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  the  events  narrated  in  this  chapter.  It  is  also  evident  that 
R  Its  of  ^^^  Byzantine  Empire  had  been  reduced  by  the 
the  spread  loss  of  almost  all  its  posscssions  in  Asia  and 
o  s  am  Africa  to  a  comparatively  small  and  weak  state, 
and  that  Justinian's  ideal  of  a  reconstruction  of  the  old 
Roman  Empire  would  never  be  realized.  Of  the  Mediterra- 
nean Basin,  which  had  been  entirely  included  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  the  whole  southern  half  had  been  lost.  And  as  the 
Romans  had  never  gained  the  eastern  half  of  Alexander's 
empire,  so  now  the  eastern  end  of  the  Roman  Empire  was 
lost  too.  North  Africa,  whose  history  had  for  so  long  been 
a  part  of  European  history,  now  goes  its  own  way;  and 
Egypt,  Syria,  and  Asia  Minor  do  not  concern  us  again 
until  the  time  of  the  crusades. 

The  spread  of  Islam  was  a  great  blow  to  Christian- 
ity. But  we  have  seen  that  certain  heretical  sects  bene- 
fited by  it.  And  it  was  not  an  unmixed  evil  for  the  Pa- 
pacy, since  the  Patriarchates  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and 
Jerusalem,  which  were  the  ones  to  suffer  most,  had  never 
really  been  under  papal  control,  but  were  likely  to  be  ruled 
from  Constantinople.  There  was  now  no  danger  that  the 
emperor  or  the  patriarch  at  that  city  would  overshadow 
the  pope.  Eastern  Christianity  had  suffered  most,  leaving 
the  pope  undisputed  head  of  the  Church  in  the  West. 
The  Papacy  and  Islam,  therefore,  grew  in  strength  simul- 
taneously and  independently,  and  were  not  until  later  to 
lock  horns  in  the  crusades.  As  for  intellectual  and  eco- 
nomic results,  the  spread  of  Arabian  Mohammedanism  can 
scarcely  be  regarded  as  an  evil,  since  the  Arabs  quickly 
attained  a  high  level  in  these  respects,  and  in  Spain,  for  in- 
stance, had  a  civilization  superior  to  that  of  their  Christian 
neighbors,  to  whom  it  was  destined  in  due  time  to  prove  an 
inspiration.  So  if  the  Arabs  had  defeated  Charles  Martel 
Eind  the  Franks,  whose  kingdoms  were  eventually  to  go  to 
smash  anyway,  and  if  they  had  overrun  western  Europe  as 
they  did  the  Spanish  peninsula,  European  civilization  might 
have  revived  the  more  quickly.  But  in  that  case  the  Papacy 
would  probably  never  have  made  its  momentous  alliance 


THE   RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM  191 

with  Charles  Martel's  son,  to  which  we  shall  turn  in  the 
next  chapter,  and  the  whole  course  of  European  history- 
would  be  different. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Seignobos,  Medieval  and  Modern  Civilization,  chap,  iv,  on  "  Mohamme- 
danism." A  very  brief  but  good  description  of  the  religion  and  its 
early  spread. 

D.  C.  Munro,  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  ix,  "  The  Moslem  World 
(750-1095)."   Also  brief,  but  packed  with  information. 

Cambridge  Medieval  History,  vol.  11,  chap,  x,  "  Mahomet  and  Islam,"  by 
A.  A.  Bevan. 

Thatcher  and  Schevill,  Europe  in  the  Middle  Age,  pp.  336-59. 

Lord  Cromer,  Modern  Egypt,  vol.  n,  pp.  133-40,  144-48,  151-53-  158-59. 
181-84  —  passages  dealing  with  Islam  and  Moslems  of  the  present. 

Margoliouth,  Mohammed  (Heroes  of  Nations  series),  any  chapter.  This 
is  both  the  handiest  and  most  scholarly  Life  of  Mohammed  in  English. 

The  Koran  may  be  examined  either  in  the  complete  English  translation 
by  E.  H.  Palmer,  or  in  the  selections  made  by  S.  Lane-Poole,  Speeches 
and  Table  Talk  of  the  Prophet  Mohammed.  A  few  excerpts  are  given  in 
Ogg,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  97-104. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  PRANKISH  STATE  AND  CHARLEMAGNE 

We  now  turn  our  attention  once  more  to  the  Prankish 
kingdoms,  which  under  the  lead  of  Charles  Martel  had 
Franks  the  brought  the  Westward  drive  of  the  Arabs  to  a 
chief  power  halt,  and  which  were  to  be  the  center  of  interest 
Christian  in  the  Wcst  for  the  next  century  or  so.  Indeed, 
West  except  for  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  their  adver- 

saries in  the  British  Isles  and  the  Lombards  and  their  rivals 
in  the  Italian  peninsula,  the  Franks  included  within. their 
borders  practically  all  that  was  left  of  Western  Christendom. 
Christian  territory  in  the  West  had  shrunk  to  a  scanty  area 
limited  on  the  northeast  by  heathen  hordes  and  on  the 
south  by  the  waves  of  Mohammedan  conquest.  Moreover, 
this  scanty  area  was  in  a  rude,  inland,  and  agricultural  con- 
dition, with  no  flourishing  industries,  and  with  foreign  trade 
either  cut  off  or  monopolized  by  the  Scandinavians,  who 
controlled  the  seas  to  the  north,  and  by  the  Saracens  and 
Byzantines,  who  held  the  Mediterranean  and  the  routes  to 
the  East. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  sometimes  the  Franks  were 
all  united  under  one  ruler,  but  that  usually  they  had  two 
The  worth-  or  three  kings  in  Austrasia,  Neustria,  and  Bur- 
Me'rov?n-  gundy.  After  the  death  of  Dagobert,  who  from 
gian  kings  629  to  639  had  ruled  the  entire  Frankish  terri- 
tory, the  kings  were  "good-for-nothings,"  mere  boys  who 
wrecked  their  lives  by  early  debaucheries  in  the  royal  resi- 
dences, which  they  seldom  quitted,  and  who  died  before 
they  were  half  through  their  twenties,  leaving  their  weak 
children  to  replicate  their  empty  reigns.  We  need  not  be 
surprised  that  these  gilded  youths  remained  for  the  most 
part  shut  up  in  their  palaces,  since  he  who  was  not  strenuous 
enough  to  ride  a  horse,  and  who  insisted  on  lolling  at  his 


THE  PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE     193 

ease  as  he  traveled,  could  find  no  faster  conveyance  in  those 
days  than  a  chariot  drawn  by  oxen. 

This  state  of  affairs  suited  well  enough  most  of  the  great 
landholders  and   the  local  ofiftcials,  of  whom  the  dukes, 
counts,  and  bishops  were  the  chief.   Their  main  Local  offi- 
desire  was  to  be  let  alone:  in  the  case  of  the  land-  great  ^land- 
holders, not  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  any  taxes;  holders 
in  the  case  of  the  officials,  not  to  be  called  upon  to  turn  over 
to  the  royal  treasury  the  taxes  which  they  had  collected. 
It  should  be  added,  however,  that  the  local  officials  usually 
amassed  large  estates  for  themselves,  and  that  the  great 
landholders  made  every  effort  to  be  appointed  local  officials, 
so  that  the  two  classes  tended  to  merge  into  one.    In  any 
case  they  were  both  ready  enough  to  dispense  with  a  king. 

But  there  had  to  be  some  one  to  repel  invaders  like  the 
Arabs,  to  protect  and  control  the  Church,  to  keep  some 
order  among  the  great  landed  proprietors,  to  see  -^j^^  mayor 
that  the  local  officials  did  not  abuse  their  offices,  of  the 
and  in  general  to  do  those  things  that  the  kings  ^^  ^^^ 
ought  to  do,  but  were  now  neglecting.  The  chief  official  at 
the  Prankish  palace,  to  whom  the  agents  in  charge  of  the 
royal  domains  and  the  other  local  officials  reported,  was  the 
major  domus,  or  mayor  of  the  palace.   In  the  end  this  stew- 
'ard  of  the  king's  estates  took  the  supreme  charge  of  all  state 
business  at  the  palace  into  his  own  hands,  and  he  also  led 
the  army  to  war.   All  this  he  was  enabled  to  do,  not  only 
because  of  his  handy  situation  at  the  palace,  but  because 
most  of  the  nobility  were  his  supporters  and  he  could  count 
upon  their  armed  aid  to  crush  his  rivals. 

Under  Dagobert's  predecessor,  who  was  originally  King 
of  Neustria  only,  both  Burgundy  and  Austrasia  were  really 
governed  by  mayors  of  the  palace.  In  Austrasia  Origin  of  the 
the  mayor's  name  was  Pepin  of  Landen,  or  Carolmgians 
Pepin  I,  and  the  other  leading  man  of  that  kingdom  was 
Arnulf,  Bishop  of  Metz.  Arnulf's  son  —  for  Roman  Catho- 
lic bishops  married  in  that  age  —  married  one  of  Pepin's 
daughters  and  became  mayor  for  a  time.  Pepin's  son, 
Grim^oald,   tried   to  supplant  a   "good-for-nothing"   king 


194        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

entirely  by  his  own  son,  but  the  other  nobles  refused  and  he 
was  put  to  death.  But  a  generation  later  Pepin  of  Heristal, 
or  Pepin  II,  the  grandson  of  Pepin  I  and  Arnulf,  became 
mayor  of  the  palace  in  Austrasia,  and  by  the  victory  of 
Testry  in  687  gained  control  of  Neustria  also,  and  ruled 
over  all  the  Franks  until  his  death  in  714. 

It  had  been  Pepin's  intention  that  his  grandsons  should 
succeed  him  as  mayors,  but  they  were  not  yet  of  age,  and 
Charles  his  illegitimate  son  Charles,  known  later  as  "the 

Mattel  Hammer,"  or  "Charles  Martel,"  from  his  mili- 

tary successes,  eventually  gained  control  of  all  three  Frank- 
ish  kingdoms.  In  order  to  secure  soldiers  against  the  Arabs 
he  seized  large  amounts  of  church  lands  and  granted  the  use 
of  them  for  life  to  his  followers.  Such  measures  brought  him 
into  disrepute  with  the  monkish  chroniclers  of  the  time,  but 
show  his  power  over  the  Church,  and  gained  him  a  strong 
party  of  supporters  among  the  nobility.  Both  Pepin  II  and 
Charles  Martel  encouraged  missionaries  to,  and  kept  fight- 
ing against,  the  Germans  east  of  the  Rhine,  endeavoring  to 
bring  the  Thuringians,  Alamanni,  and  Bavarians  back  under 
Frankish  control,  making  partial  conquests  at  the  expense 
of  the  Frisians  and  raids  into  the  territory  of  the  Saxons. 

Charles  Martel,  who  always  had  acted  as  if  he  were  king, 
but  who  still  lacked  the  title,  died  in  741,  leaving  two  sous, 
Pepin  III  Carloman  and  Pepin  III.  Carloman  soon  went 
Cardfndan  ^^  ^^  Italy  to  become  a  monk,  leaving  his  chil- 
dynasty  dren  to  the  care  of  his  brother,  who  took  care 
that  they  should  become  monks  too.  J^epin  III  now  decided 
to  renew  the  attempt  at  the  throne  which  his  ancestor, 
Grimoald,  had  made  prematurely.  He  first  obtained  the 
approval  of  the  pope  and  then  that  of  a  general  assembly  of 
the  Franks.  Then  in  place  of  the  old  German  custom  of 
raising  him  upon  a  shield,  he  was  anointed  king  by  St.  Boni- 
face, apostle  to  the  Germans  and  promoter  of  papal  influ- 
ence. This  new  ceremony  gave  to  the  royal  office  a  sacred 
character  and,  as  it  were,  divine  approval,  and'  so  an  added 
power  which  the  Merovingians  had  lacked.  A  little  later  the 
pope  pronounced  a  curse  against  any  one  who  should  try  to 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE     195 

disturb  the  hereditary  succession  in  Pepin's  family.  But 
Pepin's  resort  to  the  Papacy  to  sanction  his  taking  the 
crown,  and  his  coronation  by  a  clergyman,  furnished  a 
dangerous  precedent.  Later  popes  might  claim  the  right  to 
depose  as  well  as  to  appoint  secular  monarchs,  and  might 
pose  as  supreme  international  arbiters. 

The  pope  had  reason  to  cultivate  Pepin's  friendship,  since 
he  found  himself  in  an  embarrassing  position  both  as  regards 
the  Byzantine  emperor  and  the  King  of  the  iconoclasm 
Lombards.  Leo  IIL  emperor  from  717  to  740,  b  lantine 
proved  a  very  efficient  ruler  in  the  East  and  re-  Empire 
formed  almost  every  department  of  the  government.  But  in 
Italy  he  caused  a  revolt  and  the  expulsion  of  his  exarch  by 
new  taxes  and  by  his  iconoclasm,  or  prohibition  of  the  use 
of  images  and  pictures  in  churches.  The  former  were  to  be 
removed  or  destroyed,  the  latter  to  be  whitewashed  over. 
A  first  step  in  this  direction  had  been  taken  when  the 
Trullan  or  Quinisext  Council  of  688-694  forbade  the  pic- 
tonaPrepresehtation  of  Christ  by  a  lamb.  The  emperor 
held  that  the  veneration  of  images  and  pictures  bordered 
upon  idolatry,  and  that  by  abolishing  such  superstitious 
reverence  he  would  avoid  the  sneers  and  reproaches  of  Jews 
arid  Moslems,  and  would  conciliate  the  Nestorians,  whose 
churches  had  little  ornamentation,  and  the  Monophysites, 
who  objected  to  human  likenesses  of  Christ.  The  icono- 
clastic party  also  felt  strongly  against  the  worship  of  the 
relics  of  the  saints,  and  was  hostile  to  the  monks. 

Pope  Gregoryll  had  headed  the  Italian  opposition  to 
the  increased^  taxation,  and  when  the  decrees  against  images 
were  published  in  726,  he  called  a  council  which  p^    j 
replied  by  anathematizing  all  iconoclasts.   The  opposition  to 

iconoclasm 

Byzantme  emperors  seldom  showed  much  pa- 
tience with  prelates  who  tried  to  thwart  their  will.  A  little 
later  in  this  same  century  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople 
was  deposed  an<i  exiled  for  a  year;  then  brought  back  and 
beaten  until  he  could  not  walk ;  then  carried  into  the  church 
of  St.  Sophia,  where  a  list  of  the  charges  made  against  him 
was  read  and  he  was  struck  in  the  face  at  the  conclusion  of 


196        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

each  item;  then  he  was  scourged  backwards  out  of  the 
church;  the  next  day  he  was  made  a  pubhc  laughing-stock 
in  the  Hippodrome,  seated  on  an  ass  with  his  face  toward 
its  tail;  finally  he  was  beheaded,  his  head  exposed  to  public 
view,  and  his  corpse  dragged  through  the  streets.  Now  the 
exarch  tried  to  have  Gregory  II  murdered,  and  Leo  tried  to 
carry  off  his  successor  to  Constantinople,  Failing  in  this, 
he  took  Illyricum,  Sicily,  and  Calabria  in  southern  Italy 
away  from  the  pope  and  placed  them  under  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople.  In  southern  Italy,  indeed,  during  the 
period  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth  century  when  it  was  under 
Byzantine  control  the  immigration  of  Greeks  considerably 
altered  the  complexion  of  the  population. 

At  this  time  the  Lombards  had  an  able  king,  Liutprand. 
He  first  took  advantage  of  the  revolt  of  the  pope  and  the 
The  Lorn-  Italians  against  the  exarch  to  make  a  number  of 
try^lo^imite  conquests  at  the  expense  of  the  latter.  But  when 
Italy  the  exarch  aided  him  against  the  independent 

Lombard  dukes  in  central  and  southern  Italy,  he  recipro- 
cated by  forcing  the  pope  to  end  the  revolt  against  the 
emperor.  The  pope  then  adopted  the  policy  of  joining  with 
the  Lombard  dukes  against  the  king  and  in  739  refused  to 
surrender  to  Liutprand  the  Duke  of  Spoleto  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  Rome.  When  Liutprand  advanced  against  Rome, 
the  pope  appealed  to  Charles  Martel,  vituperating  the 
Lombards  and  seeking  his  aid  against  Liutprand.  Since, 
however,  Liutprand  had  just  been  helping  Charles  against 
the  Arabs  in  southern  Gaul,  Charles  politely  refused  and 
the  Papacy  had  to  abandon  its  policy  of  alliance  with  the 
Dukes  of  Spoleto  and  Beneventum.  The  real  situation  was 
that  Liutprand  was  a  good  ruler  for  those  days  and  a  good 
Catholic,  considerate  of  the  Papacy;  but  he  aimed  at  mak- 
ing himself  king  of  all  Italy  and  the  pope  was  determined 
that  this  should  not  happen.  Nevertheless  by  751  Liut- 
prand's  successor,  Aistulf,  had  conquered  Ravenna  and  put 
an  end  to  the  exarchate.  The  next  year  he  appeared  before 
the  walls  of  Rome,  demanding  tribute  and  recognition  of 
his  sovereignty.    Both  the  imperial  envoys  and  the  pope 


THE   PRANKISH  STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE     197 

himself  pleaded  with  him  in  vain  to  grant  easier  terms  and  to 
relinquish  some  of  his  conquests.  Aistulf  was  not  so  easily 
moved  as  Liutprand,  who  had  more  than  once  stayed  his 
attack  at  the  pope's  personal  intervention. 

The  pope  thereupon  crossed  the  Alps   to   complain  in 
person  to  King  Pepin,  who  came  to  meet  him  and  walked 
by  his  side  leading  his  horse  by  the  bridle.    By  a  p^pin's 
march  into  northern  Italy  Pepin  forced  Aistulf  intervention 

,  .  1  in  Italy 

to  promise  to  restore  his  conquests  and  to  recog- 
nize Pepin  as  his  overlord.  But  as  soon  as  the  Franks  had 
gone  home,  Aistulf  resumed  the  siege  of  Rome.  Pepin  there- 
upon again  came  south  and  forced  Aistulf  to  carry  out  the 
previous  treaty  and  to  pay  a  large  indemnity  besides.  But 
the  conquests  which  Aistulf  restored  were  not  given  back 
to  the  Byzantine  emperor  or  to  his  exarch.  Pepin  had  not 
twice  defeated  the  Lombard  king  for  their  sakes,  but  from 
reverence  for  the  grave  of  the  Apostle  Peter.  Indeed,  to 
hasten  Pepin's  second  relief  expedition  a  letter  had  been 
sent  him,  which  purported  to  be  dictated  by  the  Apostle 
Peter  himself,  and  which  promised  the  Franks  future  suc- 
cess in  war  and  life  eternal  after  death  if  they  came  to  the 
pope's  relief,  and  which  asserted  most  solemnly  that  he 
would  shut  them  all  out  of  heaven  if  they  did  not  come 
quickly. 

Pepin  came,  and  it  was  to  the  pope  that  he  handed  over 
the  lands  which  he  compelled  the  Lombards  to  disgorge. 
These  papal  territories  were  still  nominally  im-  Donations 
perial,  since  the  pope  had  not  as  yet  repudiated  of  Pepin  and 

^1  ,  .        .    .,  •  1      .         .       11       Constantine 

the  emperor  as  his  civil  sovereign,  but  actually 
they  were  the  foundation  of  the  Papal  States,  which  en- 
dured into  the  nineteenth  century  and  prevented  until  then 
the  unification  of  Italy.  Just  how  much  territory  Pepin 
transferred  to  the  pope,  and  by  what  right  or  title  the  pope 
held  it,  is  uncertain,  since  no  document  has  been  preserved 
containing  the  terms  of  Pepin's  donation.  About  this  time, 
however,  there  came  into  existence  a  document  called  the 
Donation  of  Constantine.  This  spurious  deed  was  based  upon 
"^  Tegend,  also  without  historical  foundation,  that  Constan- 


198        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

tine,  the  first  Christian  emperor,  had  been  cured  of  leprosy 
and  converted  to  Christianity  by  Pope  Sylvester.  The 
Donation  purports  to  be  the  resultant  expression  of  impe- 
rial gratitude.  In  it  Constantine  is  represented  as  endow- 
ing the  Church  with  his  Lateran  Palace  and  with  lands 
scattered  over  the  Empire,  as  showering  honors  and  in- 
signia upon  the  clergy,  and  as  finally  declaring  that  he  will 
transfer  his  empire  to  the  East  and  leave  Italy  and  Rome  to 
the  government  of  the  pope.  "For  where  the  supremacy  of 
priests  and  the  head  of  the  Christian  religion  has  been  estab- 
lished by  a  heavenly  ruler,  it  is  not  right  that  there  an 
earthly  ruler  have  jurisdiction."  Such  was  the  document  by 
which  the  popes  traced  their  claim  to  temporal  sovereignty 
back  to  the  fourth  century.  It  was  attacked  as  a  forgery 
as  early  as  the  twelfth,  but  was  not  generally  recognized  as 
spurious  until  the  fifteenth,  century. 

Pepin  continued  the  expeditions  of  his  predecessors  against 
the  Saxons  to  the  northeast,  but  his  chief  achievement, 
Pepin's  sub-  ^.side  from  his  grasping  the  royal  title,  found- 
jugation  of  ing  a  dynasty,  and  interfering  in  Italy,  was  his 
qui  aine  careful  and  thorough  subjection  of  Aquitaine  to 
Frankish  rule,  a  task  which  occupied  him  for  eight  or  nine 
successive  years.  The  inhabitants  of  Aquitaine,  south  of  the 
Loire,  were  still  looked  on  by  the  Franks  as  "Romans"  and 
had  remained  a  people  pretty  much  apart.  In  Neustria  too, 
of  course,  the  bulk  of  the  population  was  "Roman,"  but 
there  the  Franks  had  long  formed  a  considerable  fraction 
and  were  the  ruling  class.  Before  his  death  in  768,  Pepin 
had  attained  a  position  of  considerable  international  impor- 
tance. The  Abbassid  caliph  at  Bagdad  sought  his  alliance 
against  Ommiad  Spain,  and  the  Byzantine  emperor  sent 
several  embassies  to  his  court. 

For  the  period  of  the  three  Pepins  and  Charles  Martel  the 
sources  are  very  scanty,  leaving  us  in  doubt  concerning 
Sources  for  ^lany  questions  which  we  should  like  to  solve, 
the  Carolin-  On  the  Other  hand,  concerning  Pepin's  son, 
gian  perio  (^^harles  the  Great,  or  Charlemagne,  as  he  was 
called  in  the  medieval  romances,  we  are  better  informed 


THE  PRANKISH  STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    199 

than  about  the  personality  and  reign  of  any  other  barbarian 
ruler  since  the  Roman  Empire.  Yearly  tables  were  kept  in 
many  abbeys  to  determine  the  date  of  Easter  and  in  their 
margins  the  monks  sometimes  noted  down  important 
events.  These  "Easter  Annals"  began  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  but  by  the  time  of  Charlemagne  had  be- 
come fuller  in  their  entries.  The  same  is  true  of  the  official 
annals  kept  at  the  Prankish  court.  Then  Charlemagne's 
secretary,  Einhard,  has  left  us  a  brief  biography  and  char- 
acter sketch  of  his  master,  and  many  of  Charlemagne's 
Capitularies,  or  lists  of  laws,  are  extant.  We  also  have  some 
documentary  and  monumental  evidence  of  the  literary  and 
artistic  activity  of  his  reign. 

Charles  the  Great  had  a  long  reign  from  768  to  814.  His 
younger  brother  Carloman  at  first  ruled  a  part  of  their 
father's  possessions,  but  died  in  771.  Charles  Personality 
was  a  giant  both  in  height  and  girth  and  had  a  oi  Charle-  • 
jolly  face.  Nevertheless  he  could  be  stern  enough 
on  occasion  and  was  not  lacking  in  dignity  at  any  time.  He 
took  plenty  of  exercise  and  was  especially  fond  of  swimming 
and  hunting.  He  was  a  large  eater,  temperate  in  drinking, 
but  not  in  his  relations  with  women,  and  the  morals  of  his 
court  were  correspondingly  loose.  The  family  life  of  his 
father  Pepin  had  been  much  purer.  Charles's  inexhaustible 
physical  vigor  is  seen  in  his  personally  directing  a  military 
campaign  almost  every  year  of  his  reign.  He  was  ambitious 
and  autocratic  and  sometimes  even  brutal.  Yet  most  of  his 
policies  of  conquest  were  inherited  from  his  predecessors, 
and  he  was  a  zealous  promoter  of  Christianity  and  learning. 
He  knew  something  of  the  classical  languages  himself,  al- 
though he  could  barely  sign  his  name. 

Pighting,    however,   absorbed   much   of   Charlemagne's 
time  and  energy,  as  was  the  case  with  all  the  kings  of  that 
age.    He  fought  against  the  Lombards,  Bava-  Overthrow 
rians,  and  Saxons,  against  Arabs,  Avars,  Slavs,  Lombard 
and    Danes.     At    the    beginning   of   his    reign  kingdom 
Charles's  mother  arranged  a  marriage  for  him  with  the 
daughter  of  the  Lombard  king,  Desiderius.    But  Charles 


200        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

after  one  year  divorced  his  Lombard  bride  and  became 
Desiderius's  bitter  enemy.  The  pope  was  soon  again  at  war 
with  the  Lombard  king,  and  appealed  to  Charles  for  aid. 
The  result  was  that  Desiderius  was  overthrown  in  774  and 
that  Charles  became  King  of  the  Lombards  in  his  stead. 
He  was  never  able,  however,  to  bring  the  Duchy  of  Bene- 
ventum  in  the  south  really  under  his  control,  although  he 
made  several  attempts.  He  visited  the  pope  at  Rome,  kiss- 
ing every  step  of  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter  like  a  pilgrim,  and 
seems  to  have  renewed  the  donation  of  Pepin.  The  pope, 
however,  did  not  receive  from  Charles  quite  as  much  terri- 
tory nor  quite  so  many  towns  as  he  had  hoped,  and  Charles 
himself  kept  the  supreme  control  over  Rome  and  its  neigh- 
borhood. 

Already  in  Spain  had  begun  to  appear  the  divisions  that 
were  ultimately  to  ruin  the  Mohammedan  power  there. 
The  Span-  The  governor  of  Barcelona  now  again  sought 
ish  March  with  Charles  the  alliance  against  Cordova  which 
he  had  proposed  to  Pepin.  As  Pepin  had  occupied  Aqui- 
taine  and  driven  the  Moslems  out  of  Septimania,  the  way 
was  prepared.  Charles  crossed  the  Pyrenees  in  778,  but  his 
Arab  allies  did  not  come  up  to  his  expectations,  and,  after 
taking  some  towns,  he  retreated.  His  rear  guard  was  de- 
stroyed in  the  passes  by  the  Christian  Basques  inhabiting 
that  locality.  Among  the  slain  was  Hruodland,  one  of 
Charles's  chief  friends  and  lieutenants  and  the  hero  of  the 
later  Song  of  Roland.  Later  in  his  reign  Charles  was  more 
successful  and  established  the  Spanish  March,  a  strip  of 
land  extending  as  far  south  of  the  Pyrenees  as  the  important 
seaport  of  Barcelona.  Mark  or  march  was  the  name  for  a 
frontier  territory. 

Apparently  without  much  excuse,  Charles  deprived  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria  of  his  possessions  and  annexed  them. 
Eastward  This  brought  him  into  contact  with  the  Avars, 
expansion  whose  nomadic  empire  was  now  on  the  decline. 
After  several  years  of  war  they  were  defeated  by  the  Franks 
whose  territory  in  this  direction  extended  into  Carinthla. 
But  Charles's  hardest  fighting  was  with  the  Saxons,  whom 


202        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

throughout  his  reign  he  was  constantly  crushing  and  forcibly 
converting  to  Christianity,  only  to  have  them  rebel  and 
force  him  to  begin  all  over  again.  His  measures  for  their 
welfare  seem  very  harsh  to  us.  The  death  penalty  was  pre- 
scribed for  all  heathen  customs  and  even  for  eating  meat  in 
Lent.  In  a  single  day  he  had  forty-five  hundred  decapitated. 
Others  were  transplanted  far  from  their  native  soil  to  re- 
mote parts  of  the  Prankish  territory.  But  he  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  incorporating  them  in  the  Prankish  state,  and 
Western  Christendom  reached  the  river  Elbe.  Against  the 
Slavs  to  the  east  of  the  Elbe  and  in  Bohemia,  Charles 
also  did  some  fighting,  and  he  had  to  repel  some  incursions 
by  the  Danes  or  Northmen,  whose  wave  of  invasion  was 
now  beginning. 

England  was  the  only  important  Christian  territory  in  the 
West  that  was  not  brought  under  Charles's  rule.  Egbert, 
Relations  King  of  the  West  Saxons,  was  for  a  time  a  fugi- 
with  tive  at  his  court.    Charlemagne  helped  him  to 

"^  ^"  regain  his  throne,  and  thereafter  Egbert  so  pros- 

pered that  he  forced  the  other  petty  monarchs  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  states  to  recognize  him  as  overlord. 

Charles  not  merely  fought  with  his  neighbors  and  in- 
creased his  territory ;  he  governed  with  a  strong  hand  within 
The  Frank-  his  borders.  The  Prankish  constitution  and  king- 
dSnTc"entral  ship  had  had  three  centuries  in  which  to  develop 
government  since  the  time  of  Clovis.  The  chief  ceremonial 
offtcials  at  Charlemagne's  court,  who  might  also  assist  in 
state  business,  were  the  seneschal,  butler,  chamberlain,  and 
marshal.  This  last  ofificial  had  charge  of  the  royal  stable. 
Then  there  was  the  chancery  where  documents  were  written 
out  and  sealed,  a  labor  which  was  apt  to  be  performed 
largely  by  the  court  chaplains.  The  state  archives  were,  in 
fact,  kept  in  the  royal  chapel.  Important  action  was  seldom 
taken  without  a  meeting  of  the  chief  nobles  of  the  realm, 
including  some  of  the  higher  clergy.  There  were  no  longer 
general  assemblies  of  all  the  freemen  as  among  the  early 
Germans,  except  in  so  far  as  the  mustering  of  the  army  for 
the  annual  campaign  corresponded  to  this.   But  important 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    203 

state  business,  such  as  issuing  new  laws,  was  transacted,  not 
at  the  mustering,  but  at  the  meeting  of  the  nobles.  More- 
over, it  was  no  longer  the  custom  for  every  freeman  to  serve 
in  the  army,  but  only  those  with  a  certain  amount  of  land. 
Others  combined  to  support  one  soldier. 

When  Charles  deposed  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  he  did  away 
with  the  last  of  the  old  tribal  leaders  of  the  other  Germanic 
peoples  absorbed  by  the  Franks,  and  native  Local 
dukes  were  left  only  in  Celtic  Brittany  and  government 
among  the  Basques.  He  appointed  a  few  new  dukes,  but 
they  were  exceptional ;  his  regular  local  officer  was  the  count. 
The  Prankish  territories  were  divided  into  counties,  and  in 
each  the  count  was  the  royal  representative,  attending  es- 
pecially to  judicial  and  military  matters.  Charles  appointed 
whom  he  pleased,  but  the  term  of  the  office  was  for  life,  a 
dangerous  feature  liable  to  result  in  the  office  becoming 
hereditary.  Charles  also  depended  a  great  deal  upon  the 
bishops  in  the  localities  and  instructed  his  counts  to  co- 
operate with  them.  Newly  conquered  territory  or  districts 
needing  to  be  kept  in  a  state  of  military  preparation  for 
frontier  defense,  were  organized  as  marks  under  margraves, 
or  counts  of  the  marks.  Sometimes  a  mark  included  more 
than  one  county  and  was  placed  under  a  duke.  The  chief 
marks  at  this  time  were  the  Breton,  Spanish,  Friulian, 
Avarian,  Sorbian,  and  Saxon.  The  lesser  administrative 
officials  under  the  count  need  not  be  listed  here,  but  we 
should  note  that  the  people  in  the  localities  still  kept  their 
folk-courts  under  the  summons  and  presidency  of  the  count. 
The  officials  called  missi  were  links  between  the  central  and 
local  government,  who  traversed  the  realm  by  twos  and 
threes,  looking  after  the  king's  interests  and  seeing  to  it 
that  his  local  officials  were  faithful  and  efficient.  When  sent 
in  pairs,  these  itinerants  were  often  clergyman  and  layman. 

The  king  was  not  yet  accustomed  to  levy  a  general  money 
tax  or  payment  in  kind  upon  his  people,  but  this  deficiency 
was  largely  due  to  the  primitive  economic  condi-   „ 

1   1      1       r  1  ,  Royal  power 

tions  and  lack  of  money,  and  to  the  poor  com- 
munications which  would  have  made  it  difficult  to  bring  a 


204        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

share  of  the  crops  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  to  the  royal 
palace  or  granary.  Instead  the  king  took  plenty  of  the  land 
of  the  kingdom  for  his  own  use  and  lived  largely  on  the 
proceeds  of  his  private  estates,  which  he  visited  in  turn  and 
where  provisions  were  stored  up  awaiting  his  arrival.  He  also 
got  the  lion's  share  of  booty  in  war  and  of  fines  levied  in  the 
courts,  and  he  expected  gifts  from  his  nobles  when  he  called 
them  together.  However,  since  they  were  always  looking  for 
lands  and  offices  from  him,  this  source  of  revenue  did  not 
net  much.  Persons  who  were  especially  dependent  upon  the 
king  for  protection  made  a  special  payment  to  him.  Charles 
restored  to  the  Crown  the  exclusive  right  of  coining  money, 
another  considerable  source  of  revenue  as  managed  in  those 
days.  Moreover,  the  king  could  demajid  services,  instead  of 
taxes,  of  all  his  subjects.  They  had  to  serve  or  help  some  one 
else  to  serve  in  the  army  every  year,  so  that  the  king  could 
always  have  a  military  force  at  his  command.  The  people 
also  did  jury  duty  without  pay  in  their  local  courts,  enter- 
tained the  royal  agents  as  these  traveled  about,  and  worked 
at  the  upkeep  of  roads  and  bridges. 

Whereas  among  the  early  Germans  there  was  little  legis- 
lation, and  law  was  regarded  as  something  ancient  and 
Royal  customary,  now  the  king  made  many  new  laws, 

legislation  Charles  In  particular  Issued  a  vast  amount  of 
orders  and  Instructions  to  his  officials  and  of  rules  for  the 
people  in  his  realm  as  a  whole  or  in  some  portion  of  it.  The 
new  laws  did  not  necessarily  alter  the  old  popular  customs, 
but  often  that  was  the  case.  Where  the  old  law  had  been 
harsh  and  primitive,  the  royal  legislation  tended  to  substi- 
tute fairer  and  more  civilized  methods.  The  king's  law, 
moreover,  applied  throughout  his  realm  or  a  given  part  of  it, 
whereas  the  old  German  laws  had  been  for  tribes.  The  old 
law  had  been  personal;  the  royal  legislation  was  territorial. 
Charles  issued  sets  of  regulations  for  his  army,  for  the  care  of 
his  private  estates,  for  the  missi,  for  the  clergy,  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Saxons,  and  so  forth.  His  successors,  Louis 
the  Pious  and  Lothair,  issued  further  capitularies.  Charles 
also  had  the  laws  of  the  different  German  peoples  within 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    205 

his  realm  written  down  where  that  had  not  already  been 
done. 

Even  in  the  folk-courts  procedure  had  now  altered  much 
from  that  of  the  early  Germans.  It  was  less  harsh  and  more 
equitable.  Not  only  had  its  formalities  been  changes 
Christianized,  but  set  forms  had  become  of  less  in  judicial 
importance.  There  was  also  now  less  self-help  by  ^'^'^^^ 
the  parties  to  the  suit  and  more  control  was  exercised  by  the 
public  authorities.  The  summons  to  court  was  now  by 
order  of  king  or  count ;  in  the  conduct  of  the  trial  the  liti- 
gants did  less  and  the  presiding  magistrate  did  more ;  at  the 
end  of  the  trial  the  party  who  had  shown  better  proof  re- 
ceived from  the  court  a  certificate  attesting  this  fact,  though 
he  was  still  left  to  execute  the  sentence  himself.  Evidence 
now  began  to  be  used  to  decide  the  case  instead  of  merely 
oaths  and  ordeal.  Written  records  were  often  presented  in 
court,  and,  while  a  private  document  had  to  be  verified  by 
ceremonial  witnesses  and  might  be  opposed  by  the  other 
side's  presenting  witnesses  or  by  piercing  it  with  a  sword 
as  a  challenge  to  the  ordeal  by  combat  or  wager  of  battle, 
a  royal  charter  could  not  be  so  contested.  Oath-helpers 
now  must  hold  a  certain  amount  of  property  and  must  come 
from  the  neighborhood  rather  than  from  the  kindred.  It 
was  possible  to  appeal  from  the  folk-court  to  the  king's 
court,  where  still  more  informal,  sensible,  and  equitable 
methods  of  procedure  were  now  in  vogue. 

Royal  influence  was  further  seen  in  the  sworn  inquest,  an 
institution  which  could  be  employed  only  by  the  king,  or  by 
his  missi  and  counts  with  his  express  permission.  The  sworn 
This  method  was  inherited  from  the  late  Roman  'i^^^est 
Empire  and  was  employed  for  administrative  as  well  as 
judicial  purposes.  It  consisted  in  summoning  a  number  of 
persons  from  the  locality  in  question,  who  were  bound  by 
oath  to  tell  what  they  knew  concerning  crimes  committed 
there  or  a  corrupt  official  or  any  similar  matter.  Sometimes 
these  sworn  witnesses  gave  their  testimony  collectively, 
sometimes  they  were  questioned  singly.  This  was  a  good 
method  for  the  government  in  gathering  information,  but  it 


2o6        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

proved  very  unpopular  among  the  Franks,  because  the 
sworn  witnesses  were  regarded  as  tale-bearers  upon  their 
neighbors  and  were  liable  to  be  the  victims  of  private  venge- 
ance after  the  royal  officials  had  passed  on.  But  the  in- 
stitution survived  the  fall  of  the  Frankish  state  and  con- 
tinued in  existence  in  Normandy,  whence  it  was  carried  to 
England  after  the  Norman  conquest,  and  there  became  the 
germ  of  the  modern  jury  system  in  English  and  United 
States  law. 

The  City  of  God  was  a  favorite  book  with  Charlemagne 
and  he  aimed  to  make  his  empire  a  state  of  which  God  would 
Charlemagne  3-PP^ove  and  in  which  God's  will  should  rule, 
and  the  Half  of  his  capitulancs  deal  with  the  Church 

Church  ,  r  1  •  1 

and  many  more  or  his  measures  have  a  sancti- 
monious tinge.  He  regarded  himself,  however,  and  not  the 
pope  or  other  clergy,  as  the  supreme  instrument  of  the 
divine  will,  and,  like  Justinian,  he  intended  to  rule  in  mat- 
ters both  of  Church  and  State.  His  idea  was  that  he  should 
both  issue  the  orders  and  see  to  their  execution,  while  the 
pope  could  pray  for  his  success  and  carry  out  his  commands. 
Charlemagne  knew  less  of  theology  than  Justinian,  but  he 
nevertheless  managed  to  have  his  way.  We  have  seen  that 
from  Clovis  on  the  Frankish  kings  kept  a  close  control  over 
their  bishops  and  abbots,  and  that  Charles  Martel  had  not 
hesitated  to  appropriate  church  lands  to  his  own  purposes. 
It  was  therefore  nothing  unusual  for  Charlemagne  to  con- 
trol the  appointment  of  bishops  and  abbots,  and,  if  need  be, 
their  possessions;  but  he  also  superintended  their  education 
and  morals.  One  of  his  capitularies  instructs  bishops,  abbots, 
and  their  advocates,  vicars,  and  hundredmen  to  live  a  godly 
life  and  in  accordance  with  the  rule.  The  secular  clergy  are 
not  to  keep  hunting-dogs,  hawks,  or  falcons.  The  monks  are 
told  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  secular  business,  to  shun 
wholly  worldly  affairs,  strife,  controversy,  drunkenness, 
feasting,  and  lust.  Rumors  of  scandalous  doings  in  monas- 
teries have  reached  Charlemagne's  ears  and  saddened  him. 
He  declares,  "Certainly  if  any  such  report  shall  have  come 
to  our  ears  in  the  future,  we  will  inflict  such  a  penalty,  not 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    207 

only  on  the  culprits,  but  also  on  those  who  have  consented 
to  such  deeds,  that  no  Christian  who  shall  have  heard  of 
it  will  ever  dare  in  the  future  to  perpetrate  such  acts." 
Charlemagne  intended  to  direct  church  doctrine  as  well  as 
discipline  the  clergy  and  convert  the  heathen.  In  787,  when 
the  Byzantine  Empress  Irene  and  her  son  Constantine  called 
an  oecumenical  council  at  Nicaea,  which  restored  images,  — 
just  what  the  pope  wanted,  —  Charlemagne  insisted  that 
the  decrees  of  the  council  were  heretical  ajid  that  the  pope 
should  excommunicate  Irene.  Charlemagne  saw  the  value  of 
the  Church  as  a  means  of  cementing  his  diverse  posses- 
sions together;  he  used  the  clergy  as  political  assistants;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  his  secular  officials  helped  collect  the 
church  tithes ;  and  his  control  of  the  Church  was  in  the  main 
exercised  through  ecclesiastical  machinery.  When  he  de- 
creed the  death  penalty  for  Saxons  caught  in  heathen  prac- 
tices, he  made  the  exception  that  any  such  person  who  fled 
to  a  priest  and  confessed  his  sin  should  have  to  do  only  such 
penance  as  the  priest  ordained.  The  fact  is  that  Charle- 
magne made  little  distinction  between  ecclesiastical  and 
political  matters.  He  ran  both  at  once,  and  in  his  reign 
Church  and  State,  king  and  pope,  were  in  cordial  partner- 
ship. As  Gregory  the  Great  had  advised  the  statesmen  of 
his  day,  not  because  he  had  any  particular  right  to  do  so, 
but  because  of  his  superior  energy  and  sagacity,  so  Charle- 
magne, because  of  his  strong  will  and  ability  to  get  things 
done,  managed  the  affairs  of  the  Church  without  raising 
serious  papal  objections. 

There  were  two  weak  points  in  the  position  of  the  pope 
quite  apart   from  his  relations  with   the  Byzantine   em- 
peror, the  Lombards,  and  the  Franks.  The  office  chronic 
was  elective,   giving  opportunity  for  disorder,  weaknesses 
corruption,  and  violence  whenever  a  new  pontiff  medieval 
had  to  be  chosen.   Then  the  populace  of  Rome  ^^P^^y 
often  made  life  very  uncomfortable  for  a  pope  whom  they 
did  not   like.    Such  were  the  troubles  at  home  that  the 
Papacy  had  to  put  up  with  all  through  the  Middle  Ages,  no 
matter  how  independent  it  made  itself  of  outside  interfer- 


208        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ence  nor  how  large  a  territory  it  had  under  its  own  rule  as 
papal  states.  Indeed,  if  some  one  like  the  Byzantine  em- 
peror or  the  King  of  the  Lombards  controlled  all  Italy,  he 
would  probably  see  to  it  that  the  election  of  a  pope  proceeded 
in  an  orderly  and  decent  manner,  though  he  might  influence 
it  himself,  and  he  would  be  strong  enough  to  make  the 
Roman  mob  behave.  It  has  not  always  proved  an  unmixed 
blessing  to  the  Papacy  to  be  left  free  from  outside  interfer- 
ence and  protection.  This  was  now  shown  to  be  the  case. 

Just  before  Charlemagne's  accession  there  had  been  a 
shocking  struggle  for  the  papal  chair,  with  murders  and 
Charle-  atrocities.    The  conspiracies  and  assassinations 

magne's         continued  until  the  election  of  Hadrian  I  and 

protection  .  r    ^,       i  t      i  ^t       i 

of  the  the  commg  of  Charlemagne  to  Italy.    Charle- 

Papacy  magne,  like   Pepin,   was  called   by   the    popes 

"Patrician  of  the  Romans,"  and  was  regarded  as  the  pro- 
tector of  the  city  of  Rome  and  the  other  papal  territory. 
When  Hadrian  died  in  795,  his  successor,  Leo  III,  sent  to 
Charlemagne  as  his  overlord  the  keys  of  St.  Peter's  grave 
and  the  flag  of  the  city  of  Rome  as  tokens  of  his  homage 
and  fidelity.  Charlemagne's  response  was  to  warn  him  to 
be  a  good  pope.  This  he  was  not,  and  after  four  years  of 
his  harsh  rule  the  discontented  Romans  gave  him  a  sound 
beating  and  forced  him  to  flee  to  Charlemagne  for  succor. 
Charlemagne  stood  by  him  and  sent  him  back  to  Rome, 
where  the  year  following  an  assembly  of  Franks  and  Ro- 
mans decided  that  he  might  free  himself  from  the  accusa- 
tions against  him  by  a  voluntary  oath.  They  felt  that  it 
would  be  unseemly  to  subject  the  pope  to  an  ordinary  trial. 
On  December  23,  Leo  so  cleared  himself. 

Two  days  later  on  Christmas,  800,  as  Charles  knelt  in 
prayer  in  St.  Peter's,  the  grateful  pope  surprised  him  by 
Charlemagne  P^^cing  a  crown  on  his  head  and  adoring  him  in 
crowned  Byzantine  style,  while  the  assembled  populace 
emperor  bailed  him  as  "Augustus,  crowned  of  God,  great 
and  pacific  Emperor  of  the  Romans."  Charlemagne's  pos- 
sessions might  well  be  called  an  empire,  since  he  was  King 
of  the  Lombards  as  well  as  King  of  the  Franks,  and  also 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    209 

ruled  over  other  lands  and  peoples.  Moreover,  the  Byzan- 
tine Empire  now  held  nothing  in  the  West  except  southern 
Italy  and  Sicily.  Charlemagne's  territory  bore  slight  re- 
semblance, however,  to  the  old  Roman  Empire,  since  he 
had  nothing  in  the  East  and  did  not  have  Africa,  Britain, 
or  much  of  Spain  in  the  West.  On  the  other  hand,  his 
empire  included  a  good  slice  of  German  territory  between 
the  Rhine  and  Elbe  which  the  Romans  had  never  been  able 
to  conquer.  However,  Rome  was  still  a  magic  name  with 
an  eternal  heritage,  and  for  Rome  once  more  to  have  an 
emperor  was  an  event  destined  to  exert  a  great  future  influ- 
ence, as  we  shall  see.  For  the  present  the  new  title  made  lit- 
tle change  in  Charles's  government,  which  was  already  both 
as  autocratic  and  as  theocratic  as  it  well  could  be.  His  sub- 
jects now  kissed  his  knee  and  toe  after  the  Byzantine  usage; 
in  802  he  exacted  a  new  general  oath  of  allegiance ;  that  was 
about  all.  Prankish  Aachen  (Aix-la-Chapelle)  remained  his 
residence  and  capital. 

Strange  to  say,  Charlemagne  seems  not  to  ha\'e  been 
pleased  by  his  coronation.  He  told  his  biographer,  Einhard, 
that  although  it  was  the  day  of  Christ's  birth  he  would  not 
have  entered  the  church  had  he  known  what  the  pope  in- 
tended to  do.  Possibly  this  was  merely  an  expression  of  mod- 
est shrinking  from  so  great  an  honor;  possibly  he  had  even 
more  ambitious  schemes  under  way  whose  realization  was 
prevented  by  the  pope's  ofiftciousness ;  possibly  as  a  result 
of  the  pope's  act  he  feared  hostile  complications  with  Con- 
stantinople, with  which  he  seems  to  have  been  at  that  time 
negotiating  and  planning  a  marriage.  Pinally,  in  810-812 
he  concluded  a  treaty  by  which  Constantinople  recognized 
him  as  emperor  in  the  West  and  he  ceded  Venice  and  the 
Dalmatian  coast  to  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Possibly  he  did 
not  wish  to  be  crowned  by  the  pope  and  would  have  pre- 
ferred to  assume  the  title  himself  or  to  receive  it  from  the 
hands  of  the  Byzantine  emperor  as  the  latter's  colleague. 
At  any  rate,  in  the  year  before  his  death,  he  and  his  Franks 
themselves  attended  at  Aachen  to  the  imperial  coronation  of 
his  only  surviving  son,  Louis.   Louis,  however,  who  gained 


2IO       THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  epithet,  "the  Pious,"  by  his  obsequiousness  to  the  clergy, 
was  recrowned  by  the  pope  after  his  father's  death;  and  his 
son,  grandson,  and  their  two  successors  all  went  through  the 
same  ceremony,  so  that  a  series  of  precedents  established 
the  claim  of  the  popes  to  crown,  if  not  to  make,  emperors. 

Charlemagne  perceived  the  value  of  education  in  both 
Church  and  State.  He  established  a  school  at  his  palace  to 
Charlemagne  train  up  men  to  do  his  work.  He  wished  the 
and  learning  (,jgj.gy  ^q  j^now  enough  Latin  to  be  able  to  read 
the  church  service,  to  write  a  respectable  letter,  and  to  in- 
terpret the  Holy  Scriptures  with  understanding.  This  was 
asking  a  good  deal  of  the  Prankish  Church  at  that  time, 
and  he  had  to  call  in  as  teachers  monks  from  England 
and  scholars  from  Italy  —  countries  where  there  was  some- 
what more  culture.  An  ordinance  in  which  Charlemagne  ex- 
horts his  bishops  and  monks  to  lead  exemplary  lives  has 
sometimes  been  incorrectly  interpreted  to  imply  that  he 
established  universal  elementary  education  for  slave  as  well 
as  free-born.  But  it  would  be  truly  extraordinary  for  a 
monarch  suddenly  to  decree  universal  education  in  a  land 
plunged  in  ignorance,  by  making  an  incidental  remark  or 
two  in  an  "admonition"  to  the  clergy.  So  important  a 
measure  would  at  least  call  for  an  elaborate  law  devoted  to 
it  exclusively,  and  would  have  needed  a  whole  set  of  capitu- 
laries ever  really  to  enforce  it.  Anyway,  Charlemagne  says 
nothing  of  the  sort  to  his  clergy.  He  does  not  bid  them 
educate  serf  as  well  as  free;  he  does  tell  them  to  bring 
up  for  the  Christian  ministry  not  merely  boys  of  servile 
origin,  but  also  the  sons  of  freemen,  and  to  maintain 
schools  where  such  boys  may  liearn  to  read,  so  that  in  later 
life  they  may  copy  the  Gospel,  Psalter,  and  Missal  without 
making  mistakes. 

There  is  also  little  evidence  for  the  so-called  "  Carolingian 
Renaissance,"  over  which  some  historians  have  waxed  elo- 
rr,  „  .  quent  and  which  one  has  declared  almost  com- 

The  so-called    ^  i  t      !•        t-»         • 

"Carolingian  parable  in  its  results  to  the  later  Italian  Renais- 

Renaissance-   ^^^^^^     j^   j^  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  p^p^  ^^^  ^^^^  p^pj^^ 

some  hymnals  and  textbooks  written  in  Greek ;  that  a  revi- 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    211 

sion  of  the  Salic  law  from  Charlemagne's  time  is  in  better 
Latin  than  the  version  from  the  reign  of  Clovis;  and  that 
Charlemagne  himself  is  said  to  have  spoken  Latin  and  under- 
stood Greek,  although  he  could  scarcely  write  his  name. 
But  there  is  no  record  of  his  encouraging  classical  learning 
and  literature  for  their  own  sake,  nor  of  any  great  profi- 
ciency in  either  in  his  time.  Alcuin,  the  bright  light  of  his 
court  and  palace  school,  was  hardly  the  equal  of  Cassiodorus 
and  Isidore.  Two  reigns  after  Charlemagne,  John  of  Ireland, 
known  as  Erigena,  a  remarkably  original  and  fearless  thinker 
for  his  time,  became  head  of  the  palace  school  and  trans- 
lated from  the  Greek  the  theological  treatises  falsely  at- 
tributed to  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  who  heard  the  Apostle 
Paul  preach  at  Athens.  It  has  been  asserted  that  almost  all 
the  works  of  Latin  literature  extant  to-day  are  preserved 
for  us  in  manuscripts  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries, 
but  how  far  to  attribute  this  to  Charlemagne  it  is  hard  to 
say. 

If  Charles  the  Great  did  little  to  encourage  classical  stud- 
ies, his  contribution  toward  the  development  of  modem 
literature  is  even  more  uncertain.  He  is  said  to  Charlemagne 
have  ordered  that  the  national  songs  of  the  and  modern 
Germ.ans  should  be  collected  and  that  a  Prankish 
grammar  should  be  written,  but  no  such  works  have  come 
down  to  us.  Our  earliest  considerable  specimens  of  the 
growth  of  modern  languages  come  from  the  time  of  his 
grandsons,  two  of  whom  when  combining  against  a  third  ex- 
changed oaths  of  fidelity  in  languages  which  each  other's 
troops  could  understand  and  which  show  us  early  stages  in 
the  development  of  the  Prench  and  German  languages. 
When  literature  in  the  modern  languages  first  really  began, 
in  the  centuries  after  the  break-up  of  his  empire,  it  looked 
back  on  Charlemagne  as  one  of  the  heroes  of  old  along  with 
Caesar  and  Alexander;  and  the  ruler,  Charles  the  Great, 
whose  true  historical  importance  was  already  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  no  longer  appreciated,  was  rele- 
gated to  the  realm  of  romance  as  Charlemagne. 

And  in  fact  Charlemagne's  reign  in  most  respects  looked 


212        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

backward  rather  than  forward.  His  octagonal  cathedral  at 
Charle-  Aachen,  which  is  still  standing,  copied  the  plan 

placein  ^^  ^an  Vitale  at  Ravenna  and  imported  columns 

history  from  Ravenna,  Treves,  and  Rome  for  its  interior 

decoration  —  a  task  to  which  contemporary  artists  were 
doubtless  unequal.  He  did  not  try  to  alter  much  the  crude 
economic  conditions  of  his  age,  and  he  probably  never 
dreamt  of  social  reform.  His  coronation  as  Roman  emperor 
seems  a  political  retrospect  rather  than  an  advance  toward 
the  modern  type  of  state.  He  showed  little  consideration 
for  what  Is  to-day  called  the  spirit  of  nationality;  he  forced 
Lombards  and  Bavarians  and  Saxons  and  Spaniards  under 
his  autocratic  rule,  and  then  was  ready  to  divide  arbitrarily 
among  his  descendants  the  briefly  realized  unity  of  his  em- 
pire. We  shall  see  that  the  decline  of  his  empire,  more  than 
its  creation,  marked  a  transition  toward  modern  history, 
and  that  his  inability  to  subdue  the  Northmen  and  the 
Arabs  hastened  that  day  more  than  did  his  conquest  of  the 
Saxons. 

While  the  conception  of  imperial  Rome  was  to  endure  and 
another  attempt  to  realize  it  was  to  be  made  later,  Charle- 
Disintegra-  magne's  empire  began  to  disintegrate,  directly 
Prankish^  his  commanding  personality  disappeared.  It  was 
Empire  only  an  accident  that  its  unity  was  preserved 

when  he  died.  He  had  planned  in  accordance  with  Prank- 
ish custom  to  divide  among  his  three  sons  the  territories 
which  he  had  been  at  such  pains  to  unite ;  but  only  one  son 
survived  him,  Louis  the  Pious,  and  ruled  alone  as  emperor 
from  814.  Louis's  sons  kept  pestering  him  to  partition  his 
realm  among  them  and  he  did  so  several  times  before  his 
death.  As  early  as  817  he  made  Lothair  his  associate  in  the 
imperial  ofhce;  gave  to  Pepin,  Aquitaine;  to  Louis,  Bavaria; 
and  to  a  nephew,  Italy.  In  829  Charles  received  Alamannia. 
In  833  the  sons  tried  to  get  rid  of  their  father,  who  was  too 
gentle  for  that  age,  by  shutting  him  up  in  a  monastery,  but 
he  recovered  the  throne  and  lived  on  until  840.  Meanwhile 
Pepin  had  died  and  there  had  been  new  divisions  of  territory 
and  more  revolts.  Lothair  succeeded  his  father  as  emperor. 


THE   PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    213 

but  his  brothers  defeated  him  at  Fontenay  and  he  had  to 
sign  the  Treaty  of  Verdun  in  843.  This  left  him  in  posses- 
sion of  only  a  long  central  strip  of  territory,  extending  from 
Rome  to  the  North  Sea  and  including  both  the  papal  city 
and  the  Prankish  capital,  Aachen.  It  also  embraced  Lom- 
bardy,  Provence,  most  of  Burgundy,  the  original  territories 
of  the  Salians  and  Ripuarians  before  Clovis's  conquests, 
and  Frisia,  north  of  these.  Roughly  speaking,  he  controlled 
central  and  northern  Italy  and  the  Rhone  and  Rhine  val- 
leys. From  Lotharingia,  as  Lothair's  territory  north  of  the 
Alps  came  later  to  be  called,  has  come  the  modern  name 
Lorraine,  now  applied  to  a  much  more  restricted  area. 
Louis,  King  of  the  East  Franks,  ruled  Germans  exclusively 
—  the  Saxons,  Thuringians,  Alamanni,  and  Bavarians. 
Charles,  King  of  the  West  Franks,  had  most  of  Neustria 
and  Aquitaine  with  their  predominantly  Latin  population. 
He  had  only  nominal  control  over  Aquitaine,  where  his 
nephew  Pepin  was  king,  and  the  Spanish  March,  Septima- 
nia,  and  Brittany  were  quite  independent  of  him.  Passing 
over  various  treaties  and  territorial  readjustments  of  minor 
importance,  we  find  that  in  870  the  one  surviving  son  of 
Lothair  had  only  Provence  and  Italy  left  as  his  "empire." 
By  the  Treaty  of  Mersen  his  uncles  had  divided  Lotharin- 
gia, Louis  the  German  taking  the  lion's  share  including 
Aachen.  When  Lothair's  son  died  in  875,  the  empire  was 
practically  at  an  end.  For  a  few  years  from  881  to  887, 
Charles,  who  had  ruled  the  East  Franks  since  the  death  of 
his  father,  Louis  the  German,  became  emperor;  and  in  884 
the  West  Franks  accepted  his  rule  because  the  other  avail- 
able Carolingian  was  but  five  years  old.  Charles  proved 
quite  unequal  to  his  imperial  task ;  he  did  not  govern  at  all ; 
and  at  last  was  deposed.  Thereafter  the  different  sections 
which  had  once  been  combined  under  Charlemagne  sub- 
divided into  even  smaller  parts  than  before. 


214        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

ICONOCLASM. 

Foord,  The  Byzantine  Empire,  chap,  x,  pp.  180-202. 

Bury,  Later  Roman  Empire,  vol.  ll,  book  VI,  chaps.  lii,  vi,  x. 

The  Donation  of  Constantine. 

Henderson,  Historical  Documents  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  319-29. 

1.  What  subject  is  discussed  on  pages  320-21? 

2.  Write  a  brief  synopsis  of  the  story  of   Constantine's  cure  and 

conversion  narrated  on  pages  322-23. 

3.  What  is  the  chief  point  discussed  on  pages  324-25? 

4.  List  the  gifts  and  privileges  bestowed  by  Constantine  upon  the 
pope,  the  Church,  and  the  clergy. 

Personality  of  Charlemagne. 

Einhard,  Life  of  Charlemagne,  translated  by  S.  E.  Turner.  (New  York, 
1880.) 

The  Capitularies. 

Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  vi,  no.  5. 

A.  Capitulatio  de  partibus  Saxonice  (pp.  2-5). 

1.  Make  lists  of  previous  pagan  rites  and  beliefs  of  the  Saxons,  and 
of  Christian  customs  and  observances  mentioned  in  these  laws. 

2.  Which  articles  show  the  clergy  assisting  and  participating  in 
government  and  justice? 

3.  Which  articles  deal  primarily  with  judicial  and  legal  rather  than 
religious  matters? 

4.  What  social  classes  are  mentioned? 

5.  What  government  officials  are  named? 

6.  Explain  the  terms,  ban,  solidi,  fidejussor. 

B.  Capitularies  relating  to  Education  (pp.  12-15). 

1.  List  the  arguments  presented  in  favor  of  education. 

2.  What  persons  are  to  be  educated? 

3.  In  what  is  their  training  to  consist? 

C.  General  Capitulary  for  the  Missi  (pp.  16-27,  arts.  1-9,  16-24,  32. 

39)- 

1.  What,  judging  from  articles  1-9,  were  at  this  period  regarded 
as  the  chief  duties  of  a  citizen?  (See  chapter  xiii  in  this  book  for 
an  explanation  of  "serfs"  in  article  4  and  of  "benefice"  in 
article  6.) 

2.  What  impression  of  the  morality  of  the  clergy  of  that  time  do 
you  receive  from  articles  16-24? 

3.  Compare  the  attitude  toward  murder  in  article  32  with  the 
modern  attitude. 

4.  What  is  article  39  about? 

Charlemagne's  Private  Estates, 

Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.   Hi, 
no.  2,  pp.  2-5;  or  Ogg,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  124-29. 


THE  PRANKISH   STATE  AND   CHARLEMAGNE    215 

Charlemagne's  Interest  in  Education. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  51-57. 

Charlemagne's  Coronation  and  Empire. 
Bryce,  Holy  Roman  Empire,  chap.  v. 

The  Coronation  of  Charles  the  Great. 

Duncalf  and  Krey,  Parallel  Source  Problems  in  Medieval  History,  Prob- 
lem I. 

Prankish  Geography. 

By  using  the  index  of  a  historical  atlas  locate  ail  places  mentioned 
in  articles  1-3  on  pages  28-29  in  Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  vi,  no.  5;  and  indicate  on  an  outline  map 
the  respective  shares  of  the  three  sons,  Louis,  Pepin,  and  Charles. 

The  Successors  of  Charlemagne. 

Bryce,  Holy  Roman  Empire,  chap,  vi,  "  Carolingian  and  Italian  Em- 
perors." 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   NEW   INVADERS 

Internal  weakness  was  one  important  cause  of  the  break- 
up of  Charlemagne's  empire,  but  a  new  series  of  invasions 
Invasions  of  from  all  sides  hastened  the  disintegration  and 
and  Tenth  greatly  increased  the  confusion.  The  overland 
centuries  advance  of  Islam  had  been  checked,  but  through 
the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  Sicily  and  southern  Italy  and 
the  coasts  from  Naples  to  the  Rhone  were  assailed  by  sea  by 
Saracens  from  North  Africa  and  elsewhere.  On  the  east  the 
Wends  beyond  the  Elbe  and  the  Czechs  in  Bohemia,  both 
Slavic  peoples,  made  inroads;  and  in  the  southeast  appeared 
a  new  terror,  the  fierce  Magyars,  representing  another  wave 
of  the  mounted  nomads  from  Asia.  But  most  destructive 
and  dangerous  of  all  to  Western  Christendom  seemed  the 
invaders  from  the  north,  the  cruel  heathen  Northmen,  the 
vikings,  who  came  by  sea  like  the  Saracens  in  their  swift, 
long  boats  which  could  penetrate  far  up  the  rivers,  and  who 
then  rode  about  on  horseback  plundering  like  the  Asiatic 
nomads. 

The  character  of  one  of  the  Northmen,  as  set  forth  in  a 
later  saga,  will  sufficiently  illustrate  their  spirit  and  stand- 
The  viking  ards.  "The  grimmest  of  all  men  w^as  he  in  his 
character  wrath,  and  marvelous  pains  he  laid  on  his  foes. 
Some  he  burned  in  the  fire,  some  he  let  wild  hounds  tear, 
some  he  gave  to  serpents,  some  he  stoned,  some  he  cast 
from  high  cliffs."  Yet  we  are  further  assured  that  he  was 
not  only  "before  all  men  for  heart  in  battle,"  but  that  he 
was  the  "gladdest  and  gamesomest  of  men,  kind  and  lowly, 
exceeding  eager,  bountiful  and  glorious  of  attire."  The  vi- 
kings were  firm  believers  in  wizards,  ghosts,  and  other  super- 
natural forces,  and  in  their  wanderings  to  distant  coasts  and 
strange  places  they  often  encountered  —  in  their  opinion  — 
both  the  magic  of  men  and  weird  powers  of  nature.   Such 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS     217 

things  often  frightened  them,  but  they  had,  or  pretended  to 
have,  a  fierce  contempt  for  mere  death  or  physical  pain. 
At  bottom  the  heroes  of  the  sagas  were  usually  either  sol- 
diers of  fortune  who  hired  themselves  out  to  the  highest 
bidder,  or  shrewd  traders  who  drove  sharp  bargains  and 
seldom  let  mere  love  of  adventure  outweigh  the  prospect  of 
substantial  gain,  just  as  the  mere  prospect  of  personal 
danger  could  not  hold  them  back  from  profitable  plunder- 
ing or  trading  ventures.  Such  was  the  Norse  character  as 
reflected  in  literature  not  written  down  until  after  the  period 
of  which  we  treat  in  this  chapter. 

The  Northmen  were  the  Teutonic  ancestors  of  the  modern 
Danes,  Swedes,  and  Norwegians,  and  inhabited  the  Scandi- 
navian peninsula,  where  there  was  good  hunting  Influence 
and  fishing,  but  a  rather  barren  soil.  They  had,  dinavian 
however,  by  this  time  developed  a  settled  agri-  geography 
cultural  society.  But  the  nature  of  their  peninsula  and  its 
coast-line  indented  by  deep  fjords  tempted  them,  like  the 
ancient  Greeks,  to  a  life  on  the  sea  of  trading  ventures  and 
piracy.  Rugged  rocks,  too,  like  the  mountains  of  Greece, 
combined  with  the  arms  of  the  sea  to  isolate  the  small 
fertile  areas  and  pasture  lands  from  one  another,  to  hinder 
the  rise  of  large  states  and  encourage  the  growth  of  personal 
freedom.  Unlike  the  marbles  of  Greece,  however,  these 
rugged  rocks  were  too  hard  to  quarry  easily,  so  that  even 
forts  had  to  be  built  of  wood.  There  seem  to  have  been  two 
chief  social  classes,  a  large  number  of  free  small  landowners 
who  formed  the  citizen  body,  and  their  personal  dependents 
or  servile  agricultural  laborers.  In  the  main  the  institutions 
of  the  Northmen  were  not  unlike  those  of  their  kinsmen, 
the  earlier  German  invaders,  which  have  been  described  in 
a  previous  chapter,  where  too  we  have  seen  that  what  we 
know  of  the  religion  and  mythology  of  the  heathen  Germans 
is  gleaned  chiefly  from  the  Eddas  of  Iceland. 

By  the  time  of  Charlemagne  the  population  had  so  in- 
creased in  the  Scandinavian  peninsula  that  existence  be- 
came difficult,  and  chieftains  warred  upon  one  another  in 
the  hope  of  winning  more  land  for  their  followers.    Those 


2i8        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

who  were  defeated  and  driven  out,  or  who  left  home  volun- 
tarily to  escape  starvation  or  dependence,  took 

Changes  in  J  ^  ,        ,      . 

Scandinavia  to  the  sea  and  to  plundering  more  prosperous 
about  800  \2j;\(is.  At  home  economic  and  social  inequality 
increased,  and  the  most  successful  of  the  chieftains  devel- 
oped into  kings.  By  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  Gorm 
the  Old  ruled  in  Denmark,  Eric  in  Sweden,  and  Harold  Fair- 
Hair  in  Norway.  When  these  kings  began  to  tax  and  tyran- 
nize over  the  free  yeomen,  many  of  these  joined  the  stream 
of  emigrants.  As  this  more  peaceable  and  agricultural  class 
added  itself  to  the  earlier  outlaws  and  freebooters,  the  expe- 
ditions and  invasions  of  the  Northmen  into  other  countries 
began  to  show  a  change  from  mere  piracy  and  plundering  to 
more  systematic  conquest  and  settlement. 

The  Northmen  had  begun  to  attack  Charlemagne's  empire 
at  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  and  he  not  only  had  to 
Ravages  of  ^g^t  them  on  his  northern  frontier,  but  wept  to 
the  North-  see  their  long  galleys  in  the  Mediterranean.  Soon 
FrTnkish  they  came  across  the  North  Sea  every  year  in 
Empire  their  ships  with  sails  striped  with  gay  colors  and 

with  the  high  bows  and  sterns  fashioned  into  the  beaks  and 
tails  of  fantastic  monsters.  Then  they  rowed  —  for  their 
vessels  were  propelled  by  both  sails  and  oars  —  up  all  the 
rivers  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Garonne,  reaching  the  very  heart 
of  what  is  now  France  and  Germany  as  well  as  frightfully 
harrying  the  coast  regions.  These  heathen  spared  not  even 
churches  and  monasteries;  they  burned  towns  and  so  dev- 
astated the  country  that  the  peasants  hardly  ventured  to 
raise  any  crops.  They  burned  the  church  of  St.  Martin  at 
Tours  which  neither  Huns  nor  Arabs  had  been  able  to 
reach,  and  they  sacked  even  such  inland  cities  of  southern 
France  as  Limoges.  The  chroniclers  of  the  time  were  in 
despair  at  the  sad  state  of  Christendom  and  at  the  same 
old  cruel  tale  of  pillage  and  slaughter  which  they  had  to  set 
down  year  after  year. 

The  incapable  successors  of  Charlemagne  were  seldom 
able  to  catch  these  invading  bands,  or  to  defeat  them  if  they 
did  overtake  them,  for  they  fought  furiously  in  their  hel- 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS     319 

mets  and  coats  of  mail  behind  their  long  shields  with  spear, 
sword,  or  battle-axe.  The  later  Carolingians  often  adopted 
the  policy  of  paying  them  money  to  go  away,  but  this  only 
made  more  come  the  next  year.  When  the  Northmen  be- 
sieged Paris  for  the  fourth  time  in  885,  the  Bishop  Gauzelin 
and  the  Count  Odo  defended  it  manfully  and  made  every 
effort  to  secure  from  outside  an  army  to  relieve  the  city.  But 
when  the  Emperor  Charles  at  last  arrived,  he  merely  bought 
off  the  Northmen  and  allowed  them  to  spend  the  winter  in 
plundering  Burgundy.  It  was  largely  on  this  account  that 
he  was  deposed,  and  the  incident  illustrates  the  failure  of  the 
central  government  to  check  the  invaders  and  the  fact  that 
the  people  of  each  district  must  look  for  protection  to  their 
local  officials  and  great  men  such  as  the  count  and  the 
bishop. 

Through   the  ninth   century,   then,   the   Northmen   re- 
peatedly ravaged  Prankish  territory  and  sometimes  passed 
the  entire  winter  there;  but  the  only  region  settlement 
where  they  seem  to  have  made  permanent  settle-  oi 

,  ,  ,      ,  Normandy 

ments  on  any  large  scale  was  on  the  lower  course 

of  the  River  Seine.  From  this  position  they  threatened  the 
interior,  and  the  King  of  the  West  Pranks,  whose  capital  was 
at  Laon  in  what  is  now  northeastern  Prance,  found  it  ad- 
visable to  detach  the  district  about  Paris  as  a  march  against 
them.  The  first  count  of  this  march  was  Robert  the  Strong. 
The  ruler  of  the  Northmen  on  the  lower  Seine,  —  or  Nor- 
mans as  we  may  now  begin  to  call  them,  —  during  the  last 
quarter  of  the  ninth  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, was  RoUo  (876-927),  a  somewhat  legendary  figure 
whose  exploits  are  recorded  in  the  later  Prench  Roman  de 
Rou.  He  made  Rouen  his  capital,  and  in  911  or  912  he  was 
definitely  granted  Normandy  by  the  Carolingian  king  of 
the  West  Pranks,  Charles  the  Simple.  While  Normandy  was 
the  only  large  area  conquered  by  the  Northmen  from  the 
Pranks,  they  probably  made  smaller  settlements  in  a  number 
of  places  and  were  gradually  absorbed  into  the  native  popu- 
lation, and  everywhere  converted  to  Christianity. 

In  the  British  Isles  the  Northmen  made  numerous  settle- 


220        THE  HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ments  and  conquests.  The  Norwegians  went  to  the  Orkney 
Northmen  ^^^  Shetland  and  Faroe  Islands  to  the  north  of 
in  the  Scotland,  to  Caithness  and  Sutherland  on  the 

northern  coast  of  Scotland  itself,  to  the  Hebrides 
and  the  west  coast  of  Scotland,  and  to  the  eastern  coast  of 
Ireland.  Meanwhile  the  Danes  devoted  their  attention  to 
England.  Both  these  movements  had  started  before  800, 
and  the  famous  monastery  of  lona  on  the  west  coast  of 
Scotland  was  sacked  in  795.  In  England,  as  on  the  Conti- 
nent, two  stages  of  invasion  are  distinguished;  the  first, 
from  about  787  to  855,  a  purely  destructive  one  of  plunder 
and  rapine;  the  second,  of  occupation.  The  monastic  cul- 
ture of  the  .north  was  practically  blotted  out  by  the  heathen 
Danes,  and  they  brought  to  an  end  the  Angle  Kingdoms 
of  Northumbria,  Mercia,  and  East  Anglia.  They  o^-erran 
and  occupied  the  entire  north  and  east  of  England.  But  the 
Kingdom  of  Wessex  in  the  southwest,  which  had  already  be- 
come the  strongest  Anglo-Saxon  state  under  Egbert,  was  left 
to  struggle  successfully  against  the  Danes  under  its  gallant, 
learned,  and  truly  Christian  king,  Alfred  the  Great. 

Alfred,  who  ruled  from  871  to  901,  united  all  the  rest  of 
England  against  the  Danes,  and  reorganized  the  Saxon 
Alfr  d  the  army  and  revived  the  navy.  He  drove  the  Danes 
Great  and  out  of  Wessex  and  recovered  London.  A  line 
t  e  anes  (jj-awn  approximately  from  London  to  modem 
Liverpool  was  made  the  frontier  between  the  West  Saxon 
Kingdom  and  the  Danelaw,  as  the  territory  where  Dan- 
ish customs  and  institutions  prevailed  was  called.  Under 
Alfred's  son  and  grandsons  the  Danelaw  was  gradually 
reconquered  and  all  England  united  under  one  ruler.  The 
Danes  had  done  at  least  the  one  service  of  obliterating  the 
petty  kingdoms  in  the  territory  they  had  occupied;  and 
Kent,  Sussex,  and  a  part  of  Mercia  had  forgotten  their 
differences  and  accepted  a  West  Saxon  king  in  order  to 
escape  the  Danes.  The  Danes  also  brought  England  into 
closer  trade  relations  with  the  rest  of  Europe  than  before, 
and  were  more  inclined  to  town  life  than  the  country-loving 
Anglo-Saxons.  Their  armor  was  a  military  improvement; 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS    221 

and  they  brought  in  a  large  class  of  freemen  to  a  land  where, 
for  a  century  or  two  before,  the  weak  had  been  falling  under 
the  domination  of  the  strong. 

Alfred  and  his  successors  organized  their  new  territory 
as  they  occupied  it.  The  land  was  divided  into  shires, 
divisions  similar  to  the  Carolingian  counties,  The  Anglo- 
and  the  shires  were  subdivided  into  hundreds,  io^l°gov^^^ 
wapentakes,  and  other  local  units.  These  shires  ernment 
still  exist  to-day  with  the  same  names  and  boundaries, 
though  no  longer  of  the  same  administrative  importance. 
Each  hundred  had  a  court  which  met  monthly  and  the 
shire  had  its  superior  court  which  met  twice  a  year.  The 
chief  official  in  each  shire  was  the  ealdorman  (whence  is 
derived  our  word  "alderman"),  some  leading  noble  of  the 
locality  whose  ancestors  had  perhaps  once  been  its  king. 
The  bishop  also  had  considerable  authority.  The  ealdor- 
man presided  at  the  shire  moot  or  court,  and  led  the  quota 
for  the  army  furnished  by  his  shire.  Alfred  had  revived 
against  the  Danes  the  old  German  custom  that  all  freemen 
should  serve  in  the  army,  although  he  allowed  them  to  take 
turns  so  that  some  might  be  tilling  the  fields.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  ealdorman  was  not  so  much  the  king's  repre- 
sentative as  was  the  Carolingian  count,  but  was  more  akin 
to  the  tribal  dukes  of  whom  Charlemagne  tried  to  get  rid. 
The  Saxon  king  had  another  representative  in  the  shire 
called  the  "sheriff"  (shire-reeve);  but  he  was  as  yet  a 
rather  humble  individual,  who  collected  the  royal  revenues 
from  the  king's  private  estates  or  the  proceeds  of  justice, 
but  who  was  not  comparable  to  the  ealdorman  in  dignity. 
Under  this  system  of  government  parts  of  England  retained 
in  their  shire  and  hundred  courts  many  distinctive  local 
customs,  and  even  the  same  thing  was  called  by  different 
names  and  perhaps  done  in  a  slightly  different  way  in  dif- 
ferent places.  In  the  Danelaw  many  institutions  derived 
from  the  earlier  kingdoms  of  the  Angles  or  from  the  Danes 
survived  after  Alfred's  great-grandson  Edgar  the  Peaceful 
had  become  king  of  all  England,  and  similarly  in  Kent 
many  Kentish  customs  were  still  followed.   In  other  words, 


222        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Alfred's  successors  did  not  attempt  to  force  West  Saxon 
customs  on  all  England,  but  left  much  local  freedom  and 
autonomy. 

If  local  institutions  were  the  strong  point  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  state,  its  weakness  lay  in  the  lack  of  close  connection 
Central  between  the  central  government  and  the  locali- 

government  ^[qq  The  kings  made  laws  and  issued  admin- 
istrative regulations  similar  to  the  Prankish  capitularies. 
To  advise  them  they  had  their  Witan  of  prominent  nobles 
and  clergy  similar  to  the  Prankish  assembly  of  magnates. 
Their  system  of  succession  was  more  favorable  to  a  united 
monarchy  than  the  Prankish,  for  while  the  Witan  had  the 
right  to  elect  and  even  to  depose  the  king,  their  choice  was 
limited  to  one  royal  family,  and  the  land  was  never  divided 
among  several  children.  The  \\^itan  was  not  likely  to  de- 
pose the  king,  since  he  filled  it  wuth  men  whom  he  had 
raised  to  the  nobility  because  of  their  services  and  fidelity 
to  him.  But  the  English  kings  had  no  mis  si  to  carry  their 
power  to  the  localities  and  no  method  like  the  sworn  in- 
quest for  getting  information  from  and  concerning  the 
localities. 

After  Alfred  had  made  peace  with  the  Danes,  he  tried  to 
restore  religion  and  learning  in  his  realm.  He  had  to  send 
Anglo-Saxon  to  the  Continent  for  monks  and  to  Celtic  Wales 
literature  £qj.  teachers,  as  Charlemagne  earlier  had  been 
forced  to  seek  his  scholars  from  England  and  Italy.  Al- 
fred, however,  went  a  step  farther  than  Charlemagne.  He 
encouraged  the  development  of  literature  in  the  language 
of  the  people.  He  "wondered  extremely  that  the  good  and 
wise  men  who  were  formerly  all  over  England,  and  had 
learned  perfectly  all  the  books,  did  not  wish  to  translate 
them  into  their  own  language."  So  he  himself  translated 
into  Anglo-Saxon  Orosius'  History,  Boethius'  Consolation  of 
Philosophy,  and  Pope  Gregory's  Pa^/om/  Charge.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle  is  the  oldest  historical  work  written  in  a 
modern  language,  if  we  may  regard  Anglo-Saxon  as  the  first 
stage  of  the  English  language.  Probably  first  compiled  from 
earlier  Latin  annals,  it  was  reedited  and  expanded  in  the 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS    223 

middle  of  the  ninth  century,  and  again  under  Alfred.  After 
his  death  it  was  continued  at  different  places  and  kept  up  to 
date  in  its  entries  until  long  after  the  Norman  conquest. 
We  still  possess  to-day  manuscripts  of  the  tenth  and  elev- 
enth centuries,  written  in  England  in  Latin  and  in  Anglo- 
Saxon,  which  show  that  Alfred's  efforts  to  stimulate  learn- 
ing and  literature  were  not  without  results.  From  no  other 
country  in  western  Europe  have  we  before  the  twelfth 
century  so  many  manuscripts  dealing  with  medieval  natural 
science  and  medicine.  But  from  the  constructive  govern- 
ment of  Alfred  and  his  successors  and  from  the  culture  of 
later  Saxon  England  we  must  turn  back  again  to  the  wild 
invaders. 

If  we  would  appreciate  thoroughly  the  tremendous  vigor 
and  power  of  expansion,  the  adventurous  spirit  and  the  fear- 
less enterprise  of  the  Norse  vikings,  and  their  i^eiand 
ability  to  cover  vast  distances  by  land  or  sea,  Greenland, 
we  must  follow  them,  not  only  along  the  coasts 
of  Gaul  and  of  both  Christian  and  Mohammedan  Spain  and 
to  the  Irish  Channel  or  the  Mediterranean,  but  yet  farther 
afield  and  afloat.  Before  the  ninth  century  was  over  they 
had  sailed  around  the  North  Cape  of  Europe  and  along  the 
shores  of  Lapland  to  the  White  Sea,  they  had  colonized  Ice- 
land, and  had  sighted  Greenland,  which  was  at  first  more 
appropriately  called  "White  Shirt"  from  its  robe  of  snow. 
In  the  tenth  century  they  made  settlements  in  Greenland, 
and  about  1000  visited  the  coasts  of  what  tjiey  called 
"Vinland,"  which  seems  to  have  been  either  Labrador  or 
Newfoundland  or  Nova  Scotia  or  New  England.  Thus  they 
became  deep-sea  sailors  before  the  invention  of  the  mari- 
ner's compass  and  discovered  America  five  centuries  before 
Columbus.  The  world,  however,  was  not  yet  ready  to 
profit  by  this  discovery,  and  the  Northmen  themselves 
seldom  visited  Vinland  and  founded  no  lasting  settlements 
there. 

While  Norwegians  thus  pushed  on  farther  and  farther  into 
unknown  seas,  Swedes  were  crossing  and  recrossing  the  great 
expanse  of  Russia.  Here. too  they  first  appeared  as  small 


224        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

bands  of  plunderers,  called  vaeringjar,  or  Varangians.  By 
Northmen  using  Russia's  great  network  of  rivers  they  pene- 
in  Russia  trated  the  interior  easily  and  made  their  way  to 
the  Black  Sea.  Here  and  there  they  seem  to  have  established 
fortified  trading-stations  and  to  have  lorded  it  over  the  Fin- 
nish, Slavic,  and  Tartar  populations.  As  early  as  839  they 
had  visited  Constantinople  and  had  come  home  through  the 
Frankish  Empire.  They  were  established  at  Kiev  in  south- 
ern Russia  about  850.  The  oldest  Russian  chronicle  tells  us 
that  in  859  the  Slavs  refused  to  pay  any  more  tribute  to  the 
Varangians  and  drove  them  away  and  tried  to  govern  them- 
selves. Disorder  and  civil  war  resulted,  however,  and  they 
then  sent  to  the  Varangians  or  Russ  (Ros  is  the  Slavic  name 
for  Swedes)  for  a  king  to  rule  them.  This  first  ruler  of 
Russia  was  named  Rurik  and  had  the  title  of  Grand-Prince 
and  his  capital  was  at  Novgorod.  Two  of  his  followers  set 
up  another  kingdom  at  Kiev,  but  his  successor  absorbed  it. 
An  Arabian  geographer  of  the  ninth  century  estimates  the 
number  of  Russ  or  Northmen  in  Russia  at  one  hundred 
thousand,  and  Arabian  historians  say  that  by  900  the  Black 
Sea  was  called  the  Russian  Sea.  The  Swedes  were  also  found 
upon  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  Ere  long  they  threat- 
ened Constantinople  and  were  paid  tribute  to  leave  its 
environs  alone.  In  the  later  tenth  century  they  served  in 
the  famous  Varangian  imperial  bodyguard. 

In  988  the  ruler  of  Russia,  who  had  married  a  sister  of  the 
Byzantine  emperor,  accepted  Christianity  and  brought  Rus- 
sia into  the  Eastern  Church  rather  than  under  the  Papacy. 
The  Bible  had  already  been  translated  into  the  Slavic  tongue 
in  the  previous  century,  and  this  version  was  now  employed 
in  Russia,  where  the  Northmen  themselves  soon  became 
Slavized.  Many  Anglo-Saxon  coins  and  also  a  large  number 
of  Arabic  coins  dating  between  850  and  1000  have  been  found 
in  Sweden  and  Russia.  Indeed,  in  all,  over  one  hundred 
thousand  Oriental  coins  have  been  found  in  Russia,  Scan- 
dinavia, Iceland,  and  Greenland,  showing  that  the  Northmen 
carried  on  a  great  trade  with  the  East  across  Russia.  We 
still  possess  commercial  treaties  Vhich  they  made  with  the 


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CAFjE  VERDE 
ISLANDS-B^V 


30°     Longitude      West        1"'°        fro 


Z      J  N  O  RT  H        ^     \      .^_  /i^GollafTd   V'x      Fill  \<  '  I  ImIiTIHS  :       1 

rf^,,H£.''r   ^i^^^CjL.'^        l>d— ''      \  ''<>'L  M>J-;!)  15V-    -^^7 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS     225 

Byzantine  emperor.  To  the  markets  of  the  South  and  East 
they  brought  furs  and  crowds  of  Slavs,  or  slaves,  —  for  such 
seems  to  be  the  origin  of  the  word,  —  and  took  away  with 
them  articles  of  luxury,  silks,  gold  and  silver.  Such  objects 
of  personal  adornment  and  luxury  may  still  be  seen  in  pro- 
fusion in  the  national  museums  at  the  three  Scandinavian 
capitals,  but  many  of  them  represent  the  workmanship  of 
native  artists  and  not  trade  or  plunder  from  other  lands. 

Fiends  of  destruction  as  the  first  vikings  had  seemed,  and 
fatal  as  their  incursions  had  been  to  government,  religion, 
economic  prosperity,   and  monastic  culture  in   influence 
the  lands  they  invaded,  when  once  they  began  oftheNorth- 

,  men  upon 

to  occupy  the  land  permanently,  they  displayed  European 
a  remarkable  capacity  for  adapting  themselves  civilization 
to  the  customs  of  the  countries  where  they  settled.  In 
England  they  formed  one  nation  with  the  Anglo-Saxons ;  in 
Normandy  they  adopted  the  language  and  manners  of  the 
Romance  peoples  and  became  French  of  the  French;  in 
Scotland  and  in  Ireland  they  were  absorbed  in  each  case  by 
the  native  population;  in  Russia  they  were  Slavized.  Those 
who  stayed  at  home  in  Scandinavia  did  not  develop  any 
high  culture  of  their  own,  although  by  the  eleventh  century 
they  had  become  Christians  like  their  fellows  in  other  lands. 
Indeed,  their  vigor  both  physical  and  intellectual  seems  to 
have  declined  with  their  conversion.  This  was,  however, 
perhaps  due  to  other  causes,  such  as  the  emigration  of  the 
most  ambitious  and  energetic  to  foreign  lands.  Those  who 
colonized  in  other  countries  not  merely  took  on  whatever 
culture  they  found  there;  they  also  contributed  something, 
as  has  already  been  shown  in  the  case  of  the  Danes  in  Eng- 
land. In  general  we  may  say  that  the  Northmen  contributed 
to  the  countries  they  invaded  and  settled  the  following 
things.  First,  their  vigorous  blood  and  seafaring  instincts 
and  spirit  of  enterprise.  This  we  may  see  still  at  work  in 
later  movements  such  as  the  Norman  conquest  of  England, 
the  Norman  conquests  of  Sicily  and  southern  Italy,  and  the 
crusades.  Second,  a  commerce  and  connection  with  other 
lands  which  tended  to  break  the  isolation  and  broaden  the 


226        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

civilization  of  the  regions  with  which  they  came  in  contact. 
Third,  a  capacity  for  ruHng,  organization,  and  government 
which  shows  itself  in  their  founding  of  the  principality  of 
Russia,  of  the  Duchy  of  Normandy,  of  the  republic  of  Ice- 
land, and  later  in  the  Danish  and  Anglo-Norman  monarch- 
ies in  England,  and  in  the  Norman  kingdom  of  Sicily  and 
southern  Italy. 

While  the  Northmen  were  sailing  up  the  rivers  which 
empty  into  the  North  Sea,  the  English  Channel,  and  the  Bay 
The  Sara-  of  Biscay,  Mohammedan  pirates  raided  from  the 
ancf  south^-^  ^  Mediterranean,  and  the  shores  of  southern  Italy 
ern  Italy  ^re  Still  lined  with  the  ruins  of  towers  built  to 
guard  against  them.  In  827,  when  they  were  called  in  by 
Christian  rebels,  a  native  Berber  dynasty  in  North  Africa 
began  to  wrench  Sicily  away  from  the  Byzantine  Empire. 
Palermo,  on  the  northern  coast,  was  taken  in  831  and  be- 
came the  Moslem  capital;  most  of  the  island  was  subjugated 
by  the  middle  of  the  same  century;  then  came  a  lull  before 
Syracuse,  on  the  eastern  coast,  was  destroyed  in  878,  and 
the  conquest  was  not  complete  until  902.  Long  before  that, 
however,  the  Saracens  had  entered  Italy.  The  Duke  of 
Naples  called  upon  them  in  837  to  relieve  that  town  from 
a  siege  by  the  Lombard  Duke  of  Benevento.  A  few  years 
later  the  Neapolitans  returned  the  favor  by  helping  the 
Saracens  to  conquer  Messina  in  the  extreme  northeastern 
corner  of  Sicily.  Meanwhile  the  Moslems  were  making  con- 
quests in  Italy,  especially  since  Benevento  had  split  into 
two  halves  which  kept  fighting  each  other.  Moslems  from 
Crete  took  one  side  in  this  strife  and  Moslems  from  Sicily 
took  the  other  side.  They  also  pushed  far  up  the  Adriatic 
Sea  and  defeated  the  Venetians.  They  made  Bari  in  Apulia 
their  headquarters,  and  from  that  point  overran  southern 
Italy  pretty  much  as  they  pleased.  In  846  their  fleet  entered 
the  seaport  of  Rome  and  plundered  the  suburbs  and  broke 
open  the  graves  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  in  their  churches 
outside  the  walls.  Three  years  later  a  similar  expedition  was 
defeated  by  a  fleet  from  Italian  towns  of  the  west  coast,  as- 
sisted by  a  storm ;  and  a  wall  was  built  around  the  quarter 


THE   NORTHMEN  AND   OTHER   INVADERS     227 

beyond  the  Tiber  to  protect  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter  and  the 
Vatican  Palace, 

From  847  to  his  death  in  875  the  Emperor  Louis  II,  son 
of  Lothair,  led  frequent  expeditions  against  the  Saracens 
without  succeeding  in  driving  them  out  of  Italy  entirely, 
chiefly  for  the  reason  that  the  petty  lords  who  now  divided 
the  old  Duchy  of  Benevento  between  them  did  not  co- 
operate loyally  with  him.  In  871,  acting  in  unison  with  a 
Byzantine  fleet,  he  captured  Bari  from  the  Moslems;  and  the 
Byzantine  Emperor  Basil,  who  continued  the  struggle  after 
Louis's  death,  at  last  expelled  them  from  the  east  coast  and 
southern  end  of  the  peninsula.  But  they  still  held  posts 
farther  up  the  west  coast  from  which  they  often  plundered 
central  Italy,  until  Pope  John  X  finally  got  rid  of  them  in 
915.  In  Sicily  their  rule  endured  into  the  eleventh  century 
and  Palermo  became  a  center  of  prosperity,  refinement,  and 
learning  comparable  to  Bagdad,  Cairo,  and  Cordova.  But 
the  state  was  weakened  by  the  jealousies  between  the 
Arabs  and  Berbers. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  ninth  century  the  nomadic 
Magyars  entered  the  plain  of  Hungary,  whence  the  Avars 
had  disappeared  soon  after  Charlemagne.  The  incursions  by 
Magyars  to-day  form  the  ruling  class  in  Hungary,  ^he^agyars 
Again  and  again  during  the  first  half  of  the  tenth  Hungary 
century  they  swept  over  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Thuringia,  and 
Franconia ;  they  frequently  ravaged  Lombardy  beyond  the 
Alps;  and  their  devastations  in  Gaul  sometimes  carried 
them  as  far  as  Spain  or  Flanders.  It  was  the  business  of 
the  kings  of  the  East  Franks  to  stop  these  invaders,  but 
for  many  years  they  failed  to  do  so.  Arnulf  (887-899) 
made  an  alliance  with  them.  Louis  the  Child  (899-911) 
was  defeated  by  them  and  forced  to  pay  them  tribute. 
They  invaded  four  times  during  the  brief  reign  of  Conrad  I, 
who  had  many  other  wars  on  his  hands.  Henry  I  (919- 
936),  whose  authority  was  restricted  to  Saxony  and  Thu- 
ringia, gained  immunity  for  those  districts  for  a  number  of 
years  by  paying  tribute,  and  the  Magyars  turned  their  at- 
tention to  Bavaria,  whose  duke  was  practically  independent 


228        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

of  Henry.  By  933  Henry  felt  strong  enough  to  refuse  to  pay 
tribute  any  longer  and  defeated  the  Hungarians;  but  in 
the  early  years  of  the  reign  of  his  successor,  Otto  I,  they 
continued  to  invade  Germany  and  even  Gaul,  until  at  last 
he  defeated  them  decisively  in  955  in  the  battle  of  the  Lech- 
feld.  After  that  they  settled  down  in  Hungary;  their  con- 
version to  Christianity  is  especially  associated  with  the 
name  of  their  first  king,  St.  Stephen  (997-1038). 

The  poor  Slavs  during  this  period  were  still  more  invaded 
than  invading,  harassed  as  they  were  from  the  east  by 
Condition  of  the  mounted  nomads  and  from  the  north  by 
the  Slavs        the  Swedish  slave-traders.    The  mortality  in  the 

in  the  ninth        ,  i  s    ,  .  , 

and  tenth  slave  trade  at  that  time  was  even  greater  than 
centuries  -j^  ^-^^  later  African  slave  trade  with  America. 
About  nine  Slavs  died  on  the  way  for  every  one  who  was 
sold  as  a  slave.  Yet  they  continued  to  increase  in  popula- 
tion. They  had  already  freed  themselves  to  a  considerable 
extent  from  the  domination  of  the  Asiatic  invaders.  In  the 
Balkan  States  the  nomadic  element  became  absorbed  in  the 
Slavic  population.  In  Carinthia,  Bohemia,  and  Poland  the 
enslaved  peasants  had  revolted  against  the  rule  of  the  Avars 
and  founded  native  dynasties,  although  by  Charlemagne's 
time  Carinthia  had  a  German  duke.  The  Wends  between 
the  Elbe  and  Oder,  and  the  Czechs  in  Bohemia  were  now 
able  to  defend  themselves,  and  also  made  inroads  into 
German  territory.  Conrad  I  had  wars  with  them,  Henry  I 
created  marks  to  strengthen  his  northeastern  frontier  against 
them  and  founded  Meissen  and  Brandenburg,  Otto  I  was 
able  to  take  the  aggressive  against  them.  The  Magyar 
invasion  and  settlement  of  Hungary  had  the  important  re- 
sult of  driving  in  a  wedge  which  henceforth  permanently 
separated  the  Slavs  to  the  south  of  the  Danube  from  those 
on  the  northeastern  frontier  of  Germany. 

In  the.  Balkans  the  expansion  of  the  Bulgarians  is  the 

R  ■  n  of         most  noteworthy  event  of  this  period.    In  the 

Symeon  of      ninth  century  they  extended  their  borders  to  the 

"  ^^"^         west  and  southwest.    Boris,  their  first  Christian 

king,   had   been  obliged  to  leave  his  monastic  retirement 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS     229 

for  a  time  in  order  to  blind  his  ruling  son,  who  had  turned 
back  again  toward  heathenism.  Boris  replaced  him  by  a 
younger  brother,  Symeon,  who  had  been  educated  at  Con- 
stantinople and  who  lived  like  a  hermit,  touching  neither 
meat  nor  wine.  Symeon,  however,  was  ambitious  and  tried 
to  conquer  Roumania  and  to  become  emperor  of  Constan- 
tinople. The  Byzantine  Empire  stirred  up  against  him  the 
Magyars,  then  located  in  Bessarabia;  but  he  too  found  allies 
in  the  Turks  of  the  Pontus  Steppe.  The  Magyars  were  de- 
feated and  driven  into  Hungary,  whence  they  began  the 
series  of  westward  invasions  already  recounted.  Constan- 
tinople had  to  pay  the  Bulgarians  tribute.  In  904,  Arab 
corsairs  further  weakened  the  Byzantine  Empire  by  seizing 
Saloniki  at  the  head  of  the  /Egean  Sea.  In  a  second  Bul- 
garian w^ar  (913-927)  Thrace  and  Serbia,  whose  prince  was 
a  vassal  of  the  Byzantine  emperor,  were  almost  depopu- 
lated, but  Croatia  held  out  against  the  Bulgarian  advance. 
Before  his  death  in  927,  Symeon  made  an  alliance  with  the 
Fatimites  in  North  Africa.  His  pious  son,  Peter,  however, 
made  peace  with  Constantinople ;  and  during  his  reign  the 
Magyars  ravaged  eastward  as  well  as  westward,  and  forced 
both  Bulgaria  and  the  Byzantine  Empire  to  pay  them  trib- 
ute. The  Serbians,  who  had  been  driven  from  their  country 
in  the  recent  Bulgarian  war,  took  advantage  of  this  setback 
for  Bulgaria  to  return  to  their  homes.  But  of  either  Serbia 
or  Croatia  we  know  nothing  more  during  the  remainder  of 
the  tenth  century. 

The  Emperor  Constantine  VII  (9ii-959)>  called  Porphy- 
rogennetos  from  his  birth  in  the  purple  room  of  the  palace 
at  Constantinople,  has  left  us,  among  his  nu-   Other 
merous  writings  on  agriculture,  economics,  laws,  eastern  ° 
morals,  tactics,  and  court  etiquette,  a  treatise  Europe 
On  the  Administration  of  the  Empire,   in  which  he   refers 
to  the   various   barbarian    peoples    on    the    northern  and 
eastern  frontiers  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.    What  is  now 
Roumania  and  southwestern  Russia  —  in  other  words,  the 
region  from  the  mouth  of  the  Danube  to  the  Sea  of  Azov  — 
was  then  held  by  the  Petchenegs  or  Patzinaks,  a  fierce  and 


230        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

barbarous  people  of  Asiatic  and  nomadic  origin.  Northwest 
of  them  were  the  Russians,  with  the  two  chief  towns  of  Kiev 
in  the  south  and  Novgorod  in  the  north.  Northeast  and  east 
of  the  Petchenegs,  in  what  is  now  eastern  Russia,  were  the 
Khazars,  the  only  barbarians  in  Europe  who  were  converted 
to  the  Jewish  faith.  West  of  the  Petchenegs  lay  a  territory 
disputed  between  them  and  the  Magyars  of  Hungary. 


THE   NORTHMEN   AND   OTHER   INVADERS     231 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Sources  on  the  Disruption  of  Charlemagne's  Empire. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  157-68,  selections  69, 
70,  71.  _ 

1.  List  the  time  and  place  of  writing  of  each  extract. 

2.  Which  gives  the  more  general  view  of  events? 

3.  What  invaders  are  mentioned  in  these  selections? 

4.  W'hat  parts  of  Europe  are  mentioned  as  invaded? 

5.  What  events  other  than  invasions  are  mentioned  in  no.  70? 

6.  Compare  the  conduct  of  the  bishop  and  the  count  of  Paris  with 
that  of  the  emperor  in  no.  71. 

Viking  Civilization  and  Expansion. 

Gjerset,  History  of  Norwegian  People  (1915),  vol.  I,  pp.  69-92,  and  illus- 
trations throughout  the  volume. 

Haskins,  The  Normans  in  European  History  (1915),  chap.  li,  "The 
Coming  of  the  Northmen." 

Beazley,  The  Daivn  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  ii,  chap,  il,  "  The  Norse- 
men in  the  History  of  Exploration." 

This  long  chapter  is  not  easy  reading  consecutively,  but  contains 
many  interesting  details  drawn  from  the  sagas  in  its  text  and  foot- 
notes.   It  may  be  subdivided  into  the  following  readings:  — 

Russia,  Iceland,  Greenland,  pp.  17-48. 

Voyages  to  Vinland,  pp.  48-74. 

Discussion  of  the  reliability  of  the  sagas  concerning  Vinland,  its 
location,  etc.,  pp.  74-83. 

Saint  Olaf,  pp.  84-101. 

Career  of  Harald  Hardrada,  pp.  103-111. 

Mauver,  The  Vikings  (191 3). 

A  handy  treatment  of  148  pages,  divided  in  twelve  brief  chapters 
on  such  topics  as:  — 

Causes  of  the  V^iking  Movement. 

The  Viking  Movement  to  the  Middle  of  the  Ninth  Century. 

The  Vikings  in  the  Prankish  Empire. 

The  Vikings  in  Ireland. 

The  Vikings  in  Baltic  Lands  and  Russia. 

Viking  Civilization. 

Older  works  of  similar  scope  to  those  of  Haskins  and  Mauver  are 
A.  H.  Johnson's  The  Normans  in  Europe,  and  Keary's  The  Vikings  in 
Western  Christendom. 

Early  Russia. 

Mavor,  An  Economic  History  of  Russia,  vol.  i,  pp.  6-21. 

Pirst  period  of  Russian  history,  eighth  to  thirteenth  century. 

Early  Hungary. 

Louis  Leger,  A  History  of  Austria-Hungary,  chap,  v,  "  Formation  of  the 
Magyar  State  (892-1038)." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM   AND   FEUDAL   SOCIETY 

With  the  disruption  of  Charlemagne's  empire  and  the 
period  of  renewed  invasions  from  all  sides,  we  are  no  longer 
Meaning  of  able  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  one  ruler  or  of 
feudalism  several  fair-sized  kingdoms  ;•  but  find  ourselves  in 
the  complicated  tangle  of  feudalism,  with  its  o\-erlapping 
areas,  its  conflicting  claims  and  titles  to  land  and  power,  its 
minute  subdivisions  of  sovereignty,  its  thousands  of  lords. 
Feudalism  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  denotes  the  rela- 
tionships which  existed  in  the  Middle  Ages,  especially  from 
the  ninth  and  tenth  to  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, between  the  members  of  the  fighting  and  landowning 
class.  In  a  broader  sense  it  also  covers  the  life  of  the  subju- 
gated peasantry  upon  the  land  dominated  by  the  warriors, 
and  all  the  other  economic,  social,  political,  and  intellectual 
results  and  accompaniments  of  feudalism  in  the  narrower 
sense. 

As  the  Prankish  state  disintegrated  and  central  govern- 
ment and  common  action  ceased  to  exist,  the  pieces  out  of 
Political  and  which  Charlemagne  and  his  predecessors  had 
social  chaos  put  together  their  empire  fell  apart  again  accord- 
and  tenth  ing  to  old  geographical,  tribal,  and  racial  lines, 
centuries  ^^  following  more  recent  divisions.  Local  officials 
and  great  landholders  again  became  a  law  unto  themselves, 
and  the  former  tried  to  hand  on  their  political  power  to 
their  sons  as  the  latter  did  their  lands.  The  Carolingian 
government  had  often  tacitly  admitted  its  inability  to  rule 
all  the  territory  nominally  subject  to  it  by  granting  an  im- 
munity to  this  or  that  monastery  or  great  man.  By  such  a 
grant  the  king  renounced  his  right  to  collect  taxes,  admin- 
ister justicfe,  and  send  his  officials  into  the  lands  of  the 
individual  or  monastery  in  question.  Now  the  repeated  in- 
cursions of  Northmen,  Saracens,  and   Magyars  broke  off 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  233 

communications  and  left  each  locality  in  isolation  to  look 
after  itself.  Men  would  not  obey  even  the  local  officials  un- 
less they  had  to,  since  those  officials  often  were  no  longer 
legally  appointed  by  a  king  or  emperor  and  often  gave  no 
better  protection  than  king  or  emperor  gave  against  the 
incessant  invasions  of  heathen  and  Moslems. 

Therefore  other  bonds  than  those  of  political  union  must 
be  found  to  hold  society  together  and  insure  each  individual 
some  sort  of  order  and  protection.   Such  bonds  The  bond 

r  J    •  1        1    J.'  u    J.  of  personal 

were  lound  m  personal  relations  between  men  subjection: 
and  in  dependent  land  tenure.  Already  in  the  slavery 
Roman  Empire  and  early  Middle  Ages  men  had  been  in 
personal  subjection  to  others.  Both  the  Romans  and  the 
early  Germans  had  slaves,  and  although  the  number  of 
slaves  had  been  on  the  decline  in  the  Roman  Empire,  the 
period  of  barbarian  invasions  brought  in  a  new  supply. 
Gregory  the  Great  not  only  saw  the  Angle  boys  in  the 
Roman  slave  market  and  planned  to  purchase  heathen  lads 
to  educate  as  missionaries  to  their  own  peoples,  but  in  one 
of  his  letters  he  makes  a  present  of  a  personal  servant 
(famulus)  named  John  to  another  bishop.  The  Northmen, 
as  we  have  seen,  flooded  Europe  and  Asia  with  slaves  from 
Russia.  In  western  and  central  Europe,  however,  there  was 
at  this  time  little  but  agricultural  work  for  slaves  to  do, 
so  that  most  of  them  were  sooner  or  later  set  out  upon  the 
land  and  absorbed  into  the  larger  class  of  serfs. 

""he  serfs  were  peasants  who  were  sold  or  transferred  with 
the  land  which  they  cultivated,  as  if  they  had  been  so  many 
ploughs  or  cows.  When  a  king  rewarded  a  valiant  Medieval 
soldier  or  his  wife's  nephew  or  a  new  monastery  serfdom 
with  a  slice  of  fertile  soil  off  his  own  private  estates,  or  when 
any  one  else  gave  or  sold  a  piece  of  land,  a  villa,  or  so  many 
mansi  or  hides,  to  another,  it  was  understood  that  the  peas- 
antry on  the  estate  would  now  have  to  work  for  the  new 
owner.  We  have  already  seen  how  a  law  of  Constantine 
bound  the  coloni  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  soil  and  thus 
reduc  'd  them  to  serfdom;  that  the  prevalent  land  unit  in 
the  Ri  man  Empire  and  early  Middle  Ages  was  the  great 


234        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

estate  where  one  man  owned  all  the  land  and  e\^ery  one  else 
living  on  the  estate  worked  for  him;  and  that  in  the  German 
kingdoms  established  upon  Roman  soil  many  of  the  once 
free  German  warriors  soon  sank  to  a  position  of  economic 
dependence  and  social  inferiority  —  in  short,  to  serfdom. 
The  serfs  had  to  cultivate  part  of  the  estate  for  their  master, 
to  labor  in  and  about  his  house,  cut  wood  for  his  fire,  cart 
his  grain  and  wine  and  hay,  repair  the  roads  and  bridges  on 
his  property.  Their  lord  usually  did  not  feed  or  clothe  or 
house  them,  though  he  would  probably  provide  breakfast 
and  lunch  for  them  when  they  worked  all  day  in  his  fields 
or  on  his  errands.  But  except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  a  few 
domestic  servants,  he  avoided  the  expense  of  supporting 
them  by  giving  them  bits  of  land,  of  which  he  had  a  plenty, 
where  they  could  raise  a  scanty  crop  for  their  own  suste- 
nance on  such  days  as  they  were  not  engaged  in  toiling  for 
him.  In  the  course  of  time  it  came  to  be  understood  that 
these  bits  of  land  could  not  be  arbitrarily  taken  away  from 
them,  and  that  their  children  could  inherit  the  same  by 
paying  a  fee  or  tax  to  the  lord  in  recognition  of  his  claim 
to  ownership  thereof. 

The  serfs  did  not  live  together  in  slave  barracks,  but  were 
allowed  to  build  sej)arate  huts  of  their  own.  The  rude  walls 
-pj^g  were  made  of  crossed  or  interwoven  laths  with 

peasant's  the  intcrsticcs  stufTed  with  straw  or  grass,  and 
^^  '"^  with  a  thatched  roof.   There  was  only  one  floor 

to  the  hut,  and  it  was  the  ground  floor,  and  usually  there 
was  but  one  room  inside  with  a  fire  in  the  center.  Yet  there 
was  no  chimney;  and  if  there  were  any  windows,  there  was 
no  glass  in  them,  and  in  rain  or  winter  they  would  have  to 
be  filled  up  with  straw  to  keep  the  damp  and  cold  out.  If  the 
serf's  entire  family  had  a  single  bed,  they  were  lucky;  it  was 
more  likely  their  lot  to  sleep  with  a  little  hay  between  them 
and  the  soil.  Their  other  furniture  was  equally  scanty. 

The  lord  was  far  from  allowing  the  serf  to  keep  for  him- 
Seigneurial  Self  all  that  he  raised  on  his  own  land.  Even  of 
exploitation  |^jg  ^^^  wheat  and  oats  and  barley,  and  e  ^en  of 
his  sheep,  pigs,  hens,  and  eggs,  he  had  to  hand  over  a  part 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  235 

to  his  lord.  The  master  could  not  sell  his  serf's  wife  or 
daughter  and  so  break  up  the  family,  but  he  could  require 
that  the  daughter  should  marry  some  fellow  serf  so  that  the 
children  of  the  marriage  might  also  be  serfs  of  the  same 
estate.  The  lord  also  compelled  his  peasants  to  observe  a 
number  of  other  petty  and  annoying  usages  and  restrictions. 
They  must  grind  their  flour  at  his  mill  and  pay  the  miller  a 
fee;  they  must  use  the  lord's  wine-press;  they  must  drive 
their  sheep  at  night  into  his  fold  so  that  he  would  get  the 
manure.  In  general  they  had  to  have  everything  done,  and 
buy  everything  that  they  got,  on  the  estate.  However,  to 
be  able  to  grind  their  flour  and  shoe  their  horses  on  the  spot 
was  a  certain  advantage  when  robbers  and  plunderers  were 
about  and  when  there  were  no  towns  near.  The  peasants 
also  had  to  settle  their  questions  of  property  or  of  personal 
injury  at  a  little  court  which  the  lord  maintained.  King  and 
count  and  bishop  had  other  fish  to  cook  and  paid  little  at- 
tention to  such  small  fry  as  they.  Needless  to  say,  the  fines 
and  costs  levied  at  this  little  court  went  into  the  lord's 
pocket,  while  most  of  the  judicial  work  there  was  done  by 
the  peasants  themselves.  A  lord  of  course  might  not  treat 
his  serfs  too  badly  or  they  would  starve  or  perhaps  succeed 
in  escaping  to  some  other  lord  who  would  treat  them  better. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  lord  had  a  natural  inclination  to 
squeeze  out  of  his  serfs  all  that  he  could  get.  This  service 
rendered  by  serfs  to  their  masters  and  the  profits  acquired 
by  the  lords  from  the  peasants  may  be  summed  up  by  the 
phrase  "seigneurial  exploitation,"  "seigneur"  or  "senior" 
being  the  name  for  the  lord  or  "old  man." 

"Villa"  was  still  the  name  in  most  of  medieval  France  for 
a  large  estate,  as  it  had  been  in  Roman  times.   In  England 
the  Norman  word  "manor"  came  to  be  used  for  ^, 
the  same  thmg.  It  varied  greatly  m  size  and  not  manor:  dis- 
every  villa  or  manor  was  large  enough  to  support  [ancTand  ° 
a  lord.  Some  lords  had  several  manors,  some  had  method  of 
hundreds.  The  mansus  or  hufe  was  the  usual  unit 
of  land  measurement  on  the  Continent,  to  which  roughly 
corresponded  the  hide  or  smaller  virgate  in  England;  but 


236        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

these  expressions  seem  not  to  have  indicated  any  exact 
area,  but  to  have  varied  in  different  places  and  according 
to  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  In  some  parts  of  Europe  the 
population  was  too  sparse  or  the  country  too  difficult  for 
large  estates  cultivated  by  serfs,  and  we  find  single  houses 
and  farms.  But  the  villa  was  the  rule.  Normally  the  lands 
divided  among  the  serfs  aggregated  more  than  the  mansus 
ijidominicatus,  or  demesne  lands  reserved  by  the  lord;  and 
as  time  went  on  the  lord  distributed  more  and  more  of  his 
land  to  tenants,  probably  because  the  population  increased 
and  because  he  found  the  method  of  having  the  peasants 
pay  him  a  portion  of  their  crops  more  satisfactory  both  to 
him  and  to  them  than  having  them  work  on  his  land,  which 
required  overseers  or  they  would  work  none  too  well.  On 
many  villas  and  manors  the  serf's  holding  was  not  a  single, 
compact  plot  of  land  and  enclosed  farm,  but  consisted  of 
several  scattered  fields  and  meadows  and  vineyard.  Nor 
did  every  peasant  possess  a  plough  of  his  own,  since  the 
number  of  ploughs  on  a  manor  was  often  considerably  less 
than  the  number  of  tenants  and  serfs.  It  seems  evident, 
therefore,  that  the  peasants  ploughed  their  fields  together, 
since  there  were  no  fences  in  the  way.  In  those  days  they 
did  not  raise  nearly  so  many  different  things  from  the  soil 
as  we  do  to-day.  Clover,  beets,  potatoes,  and  many  other 
agricultural  products  were  unknown.  Scientific  farming, 
irrigation,  and  fertilizing  were  little  known  or  practiced. 
Therefore  the  lack  of  variety  in  the  crops  soon  impover- 
ished the  soil,  and  a  very  general  custom  was  to  let  a  field 
lie  fallow  every  other  or  every  third  year,  in  order  that 
it  might  recover  its  fertility.  Consequently  each  peasant 
needed  to  have  several  strips  of  arable  land  scattered 
through  the  large  fields  which  the  peasants  ploughed  to- 
gether, in  order  that  while  some  of  his  land  remained  un- 
tilled  he  might  get  his  subsistence  from  the  rest.  The  land 
reserved  for  the  lord  was  sometimes  scattered  in  strips 
among  the  holdings  of  the  peasants,  and  sometimes  con- 
sisted of  separate  fields.  Then  there  were  common  lands 
where  serfs  and  lord  alike  might  pasture  their  cattle  or  send 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  2^,-] 

forth  their  pigs  to  feed  on  acorns  under  the  charge  of  the 
swineherd  of  the  villa,  to  whom  every  one  had  to  give  a 
loaf  of  bread  for  his  support. 

Enough  has  perhaps  been  said  to  make  it  clear  that  the 
great  estate  with  its  group  of  servile  peasants  constituted  a 
little  world  by  itself,  rather  sharply  severed  from  isolation  of 
the  rest  of  society.  A  large  villa  usually  had  a  the  villa 
few  artisans  in  the  employ  of  the  lord,  so  that 
the  peasants  could  satisfy  almost  all  of  their  simple  needs 
without  going  off  the  estate.  On  a  smaller  manor  they 
might  have  to  make  their  own  clothing  and  mend  their  tools 
themselves,  or  wait  for  a  chance  peddler  or  a  neighboring 
fair.  Little  spare  time,  indeed,  had  they  for  wandering,  nor 
did  the  lord  encourage  it.  They  would  be  too  apt  to  run 
away  for  good.  The  villa  was  not  only  an  economic  and 
judicial  unit ;  it  w^as  usually  identical  with  the  local  reli- 
gious unit,  the  parish,  and  had  its  own  little  church,  whose 
priest  was  nominated  by  the  lord,  and  whose  edifice,  humble 
enough,  but  larger  and  finer  than  any  of  the  huts  of  the 
peasants,  served  as  the  center  of  social  life  for  the  wretched 
community. 

Not  all  who  tilled  the  soil  were  in  absolute  serfdom.  Some 
are  called  "villeins,"  or  "men  of  the  vill,"  instead  of  servi, 
or   serfs.    There   are   many   other  appellations   social  and 
applied  to  them  which  show  that  there  were  dif-  economic 

,  .  .  1      •  r  gradations 

erent  classes  and  varymg  gradations  oi  per-  among  the 
sonal  subjection  or  freedom,  and  much  disparity  P^^s^"ts 
in  the  size  of  their  holdings  and  in  the  amount  of  service  and 
payment  which  they  owed  their  lords.  Some  could  marry 
their  daughters  to  whom  they  pleased ;  some  could  leave  the 
manor  if  they  wished;  some  did  very  little  work  for  the  lord, 
but  made  payments  instead ;  some  did  not  do  much  more  for 
the  lord  than  attend  his  manorial  court.  But  most  of  our 
records  of  medieval  estates  are  from  later  centuries  when 
the  peasants  had  won  greater  freedom  from  their  lords  and 
had  made  definite  bargains  with  them  as  to  what  services 
and  payments  they  must  render.  Otherwise  there  perhaps 
would  have  been  no  record  set  down  in  writing.   Earlier,  in 


238        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  for  instance,  there  must  have 
been  more  universal  serfdom  and  more  arbitrary  exactions 
by  the  lords.  It  must  also  be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that 
at  all  times  there  were  some  peasants  who  did  not  live  on  a 
villa  nor  under  the  control  of  a  lord,  but  were  independent 
freemen  with  farms  of  their  own. 

We  have  depicted  the  position  of  the  peasantry  as  it  was 
before  and  during  the  feudal  regime,  but  we  have  as  yet  said 
The  peasant  Clothing  of  the  bonds  between  the  owners  of  the 
was  the  basis  estates,  which  constitute  feudalism  in  the  strict 

of  feudalism  ^    ,  i     -v  7  •  i  1  , 

sense  01  the  word.  Yet,  without  the  peasants  and 
their  useful  toil,  feudalism,  with  its  tournaments  and  trou- 
badours and  chivalry,  could  not  have  existed  for  a  moment. 
They  fed  feudal  society.  Feudalism  was  based  largely  upon 
land,  and  without  serfs  the  land  was  of  no  use  to  its  lords. 
It  is  perhaps  also  true  that  without  feudalism  the  peasants 
could  not  have  existed.  They  needed  protection  in  a  world 
where  policemen  were  scarce  and  pirates  were  plentiful. 
This  protection  against  invaders  and  criminals  the  lords 
were  supposed  to  give,  and  although  they  often  failed  to  do 
so,  it  was  evidently  to  their  interest  to  preserv^e  the  laborers 
and  the  harvests  from  which  they  themselves  drew  their 
incomes. 

Besides  the  serfs  and  peasants  upon  their  estates,  the 
lords  had  personally  bound  to  them  men  who  had  "com- 
Commen-  mended  "  themselves  to  their  protection.  Those 
dation  ^y-j^Q    could    not    make    an    independent    living 

would  commend  themselves  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  to  some 
great  man  on  the  understanding  that  he  should  support 
them  and  that  they  should  serve  him  in  ways  befitting  a 
freeman.  This  might  mean  that  he  would  employ  them  as 
fighting  men,  but  it  left  problematical  the  fate  of  their  chil- 
dren, who  might  sink  to  a  servile  status.  This  practice  of 
commendation  was  mentioned  by  Salvian  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, had  been  in  vogue  among  the  Franks  long  before 
Charlemagne,  and  was  also  a  custom  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons.  It  somewhat  resembled  the  Roman  institution  of 
clientage,  in  which  the  poorer  and  weaker  citizens  had  made 


THE   FEUDAL  LAND   SYSTEM  239 

themselves  the  dependents  and  followers  of  some  wealthy 
and  powerful  noble. 

A  less  humiliating  personal  connection  than  that  of  client- 
age or  commendation,  because  it  was  cemented  between 
equals  and  not  between  a  powerful  rich  man  and  The 
some  poor  fellow  who  was  liable  to  be  more  or  <^omttatus 
less  at  his  mercy,  was  the  German  comitatus,  described  in  an 
earlier  chapter.  In  it  men  who  were  themselves  nobles 
attached  themselves  as  personal  friends  and  followers  in  war- 
like exploits  to  some  chief.  Every  king  and  duke  and  count 
tended  to  gather  about  him  such  a  band  of  personal  follow- 
ers, on  whose  loyalty  he  could  rely  and  whom  he  employed 
in  the  chief  offices  and  rewarded  with  gifts  —  usually  of 
land.  Now,  when  the  State  disappeared,  these  personal 
warrior  bands  did  not.  It  was  no  longer  possible  to  collect 
a  national  army,  but  all  over  the  land  powerful  men  had 
their  personal  followings  and  there  was  altogether  a  large 
warrior  class  for  the  servile  peasantry  to  support. 

These  powerful   local   magnates  reared  on  their  estates 
strongholds  as  a  refuge  and  defense  against  the  raids  of  the 
Northmen  and  other  invaders,  and  with  their  ^^.j  j^^   . 
personal  followings  beat  off  outside  attacks  and  feudal 
held  their  estates  for  themselves  free  from  any 
external  control.  These  strongholds,  at  first  wooden  tow- 
ers or  enclosures  raised  on  a  hill  or  other  vantage-point  or 
upon  an  artificial  mound,  later  developed  into  the  elabo- 
rate stone  castle. 

From  personal  relationships  we  must  now  turn  back  to 
trace  the  other  element  in  feudalism,  dependent  land  tenure. 
We  have  already  seen  that  the  peasants  held  Dependent 
strips  of  land,  which  they  usually  did  not  own  in  ^^^'^  tenure 
the  full  sense  of  that  word,  but  which  belonged  to  a  villa  or 
manor,  and  over  which  the  lord  had  so  many  lucrative  rights 
that  he  still  seemed  the  great  landowner,  and  the  peasants 
to  be  merely  his  tenants,  nay,  more,  his  dependents  and 
serfs.  Yet  they  were  not  dispossessed  of  their  holdings  and 
passed  them  on  to  their  children.  They  were  hereditary 
tenants  on  a  perpetual  lease.  Such  a  servile  holding  on  a 


240        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

manor  is  dependent  land  tenure  in  its  extreme  form.  But, 
although  an  extreme  illustration,  it  shows  that  by  dependent 
land  tenure  is  meant  the  holding  of  land  from  some  one  else 
and  under  some  one  else,  and  not  by  a  clear,  full,  and  inde- 
pendent title. 

The  Roman  law  had  recognized  a  practice  called  pre- 
carium,  by  which  persons  lived  on  the  lands  of  another  with- 
Precarium  ^^^  ^^^^  written  lease  or  agreement,  but  as  ten- 
and  ants  at  will.    They  were  not  ordinary  tenants 

paying  a  rent  for  a  fixed  number  of  years,  but 
held  by  a  precarious  tenure;  he  might  oust  them  or  they 
might  leave  at  any  moment,  but  in  reality  the  understand- 
ing usually  was  that  they  might  and  would  stay  on  indefi- 
nitely. The  early  Middle  Ages  developed  a  cognate  practice 
known  as  beneficium.  A  man  who  wished  to  endow  an  abbey 
for  the  good  of  his  soul  might  resign  the  title  to  his  lands  to 
the  monastery,  but  continue  to  live  on  them  and  to  enjoy 
the  usufruct  of  them  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  In 
other  words,  he  endowed  the  monastery  with  land  and  in 
return  received  from  it  an  annuity,  also  in  land.  Or  the 
transaction  might  be  carried  out  from  the  other  side;  some 
great  landowner  might  grant  the  usufruct  of  a  piece  of  his 
land  for  life  to  one  of  his  friends  or  warriors,  but  keep  the 
title  to  the  land  himself. 

Kings  often  rewarded  their  followers  with  grants  of  land. 
Sometimes  these  were  outright  gifts,  leaving  the  giver 
Royal  neither  control  over  the  land  nor  legal  claim  on 

grants  ^^le  recipient.  Still  there  was  always  the  moral 

bond  of  gratitude,  and  such  followers,  having  been  once  well 
repaid  for  their  loyalty,  were  likely  to  continue  to  ser^'^e  the 
king  in  the  lively  hope  of  favors  yet  to  come.  When  the 
Anglo-Saxon  ruler  "booked"  land  to  one  of  his  thegns,  he 
gave  him  a  written  deed  or  charter  which  could  be  adduced 
in  proof  of  ownership.  It  also  showed,  however,  that  the 
land  had  come  from  the  king,  and  Anglo-Saxon  law  per- 
mitted the  king  to  confiscate  such  lands  if  the  owners  turned 
traitors  or  neglected  their  military  duties.  The  Lombard 
kings  often  gave  no  charter  to  their  followers,  but  merely 


THE   FEUDAL  LAND   SYSTEM  241 

the  precarious  use  of  the  land;  and  Charles  M artel  had  in 
like  fashion  given  his  soldiers  benefices  from  the  church 
estates,  which  did  not  belong  to  him  anyway,  and  which  still 
belonged  to  the  Church  even  after  they  were  thus  occupied 
for  life  by  knights. 

The  peasants  on  one  manor  had  practically  no  concern 
with  the  serfs  on  a  neighboring  villa,  whom  they  seldom 
even  saw  unless  the  two  estates  adjoined.    But  Transition 
the  owners  of  the  estates,  the  masters  of  the  serfs,   ^f?'^  the 

.  1        r    1     •  1  -1  1  seigneurial 

the  hghtmg  and  gpvernmg  class,  came  to  have  to  the  feudal 
intimate  relations  with  one  another,  and  this  "^^S'"^^ 
system  or  chaos  of  relationships  we  call  feudalism.  Without 
their  mutual  relationships  we  have  only  the  seigneurial 
regime,  a  society  severed  into  small  agricultural  villages  or 
hamlets,  each  presided  over  by  a  pett}^  tyrant.  There  isola- 
tion and  local  stagnation  prevailed;  feudalism  contained  at 
least  an  ideal  of  order  and  cohesion.  It  connected  not  only 
the  lords,  but  the  estates,  the  land,  in  a  vast  network,  whose 
lasting  influence  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the 
student  of  English  law  to-day  must  have  at  least  some 
acquaintance  with  it. 

The  central  institution  of  feudalism  is  the  fief.  The  fief  is 
the  beneficuim  become  hereditary  with  the  personal  bond 
added  or  accentuated.   Grants  of  land,  which  at  j^^  f^^^.  j^^ 
first  had  been  made  for  life  only,  were  presently  hereditary 
made  for  two  or  three  lives,  and  finally  became 
hereditary.    The  heir,  however,  has  to  pay  a  relief  to  the 
lord  as  a  token  of  the  latter's  ultimate  ownership  of  the  land. 
And  should  there  be  no  heir,  the  fief  cannot  be  alienated  — 
that  is,  willed,  or  given,  or  sold  —  to  an  outsider;  it  must 
escheat  or  revert  to  the  lord  who  granted  it  in  the  first  place.- 
Also  by  misconduct  the  holder  of  the  fief  may  forfeit  his 
right  to  it,  whereupon  the  lord  takes  it  away  from  him  —  if 
he  can.   In  general  feudal  inheritance  tended  toward  primo- 
geniture, that  the  fief  should  not  be  split  up  among  several 
children  or  heirs,  but  that  the  oldest  son  should  inherit  it 
entire.   In  England  this  became  the  rule;  in  feudal  France  it 
was  observed  with  exceptions,  and  these  mainly  in  the  case 


242        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

of  small  fiefs  of  little  political  importance;  in  Germany  the 
inclination  was  to  divide  the  fief  among  all  the  sons. 

To  receive  a  fief  one  must  enter  into  a  personal  bond  with 
the  one  who  grants  the  fief.  One  must  do  homage  and 
The  feudal  swear  fealty  to  him ;  one  must  recognize  him  as 
bond;  lord  one's  lord  and  promise  to  be  his  faithful  vassal. 
The  ceremony  of  homage  consisted  in  kneeling 
before  the  lord  and  placing  one's  hands  in  his  as  a  symbol 
of  the  feudal  bond.  The  oath  of  fidelity  might  be  a  general 
assurance  of  loyalty  or  cover  specific  services. 

The  feudal  service  rendered  by  a  vassal  to  his  lord  varied 
greatly  with  such  circumstances  as  the  size  and  value  of  the 
Military  fief  held  and  the  relative  power  and  position  of 
an'd  court  ^^e  two  parties.  At  first  the  services  were  per- 
attendance  haps  not  definitely  stated  and  even  later  the 
matter  was  a  frequent  source  of  dispute  and  strife  between 
the  two  parties.  But  gradually  in  most  fiefs  feudal  ser\dces 
came  to  be  fixed  by  custom  or  by  written  agreement.  It  was 
generally  understood  that  the  holder  of  a  fief  should  not  be 
required  to  perform  any  servile  or  menial  duties,  but  only 
honorable  ser\dce  proper  for  a  freeman,  a  warrior,  and  a 
holder  of  considerable  property.  The  chief  form  of  ser\dce 
was  military,  and  forty  days  in  the  year  was  frequently  the 
amount  of  service  required.  In  addition  to  fighting  for  his 
lord  in  the  field  and  mounting  guard  in  his  castles,  the 
vassal  was  generally  required  at  stated  seasons  to  attend 
his  lord's  court,  where  his  presence  contributed  to  the  lord's 
social  prestige  and  aided  him  in  building  up  something 
akin  to  political  power.  At  court  the  vassal  might  be  called 
upon  to  counsel  his  lord,  or  to  help  decide  disputes  between 
.other  vassals  or  between  another  vassal  and  the  lord.  He 
might  also  have  some  ceremonial  function  to  perform,  such 
as  waiting  upon  his  lord  at  table,  lighting  his  way  with  a 
candle  as  he  went  to  bed,  or  counting  his  chessmen  on  Christ- 
mas Day.  Such  services  were  not  considered  humiliating 
and  seldom  involved  much  work.  We  even  hear  of  a  vassal 
of  the  King  of  England  whose  privilege  and  duty  it  was 
to  support  the  royal  head  during  a  rough  passage  of  the 


THE   FEUDAL  LAND  SYSTEM  243 

Channel.  Lords  visited  their  vassals,  as  well  as  summoned 
the  latter  to  their  courts,  and  the  lord  expected  free  board 
and  entertainment  when  he  came. 

When  feudalism  started,  money  was  scarce,  and  there- 
fore the  vassal  was  expected  to  aid  his  lord  financially  on 
certain  expensive  occasions,  and  only  then.  One  Feudal  aids 
was  when  the  lord,  captured  by  an  enemy,  re-  sources  of 
quired  to  be  ransomed;  another  was  when  his  revenue 
eldest  son  was  knighted;  and  another  was  when  he  had  to 
provide  a  dowry  for  the  marriage  of  his  daughter.  In  some 
places  feudal  aids  were  taken  on  still  other  occasions.  The 
relief  has  already  been  noted,  but  it  should  be  added  that 
the  vassal  had  to  pay  it,  not  only  when  he  himself  received 
the  fief,  but  whenever  a  new  lord  succeeded  over  him.  Other 
sources  of  profit  to  the  lord  were  his  rights  of  wardship  and 
marriage.  When  a  vassal  died,  leaving  an  heir  not  yet  of 
age,  the  lord  became  his  guardian  and  enjoyed  the  income 
of  the  fief  until  he  attained  his  majority,  and  even  then  the 
heir  often  experienced  difficulty  in  securing  his  full  inherit- 
ance. If  an  heiress  remained,  a  widow  or  a  daughter,  the 
lord  was  her  guardian  until  she  had  with  his  permission 
married  or  remarried.  Women  usually  were  not  allowed  to 
hold  fiefs,  since  they  could  not  fight,  but  by  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century  their  right  of  succession  was  recognized  in 
France. 

The  normal  fief  was  an  estate  of  land  large  enough  to 
support  by  the  labors  of  its  peasants  at  least  one  armed 
knight  and  his  war  horse.    A  vassal  should  have  gj^^  ^^^^ 
enough  of  a  fief  to  leave  him  free  to  perform  his  nature  of 

the  fief 

duties  to  his  lord.  The  normal  fief  is  noble  land, 
whose  holder  ranks  as  one  of  the  nobility  and  performs  no 
servile  duties.  Yet  the  fief  is  not  necessarily  real  estate.  The 
lord  might  grant  to  his  vassal  an  official  post  with  lucra- 
tive fees,  or  some  ecclesiastical  source  of  income,  or  any- 
thing else  desirable  and  profitable.  The  wealthy  men  of  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  did  not  have  money  to  Invest 
in  commercial  and  industrial  ventures,  but  they  did  have 
land  which  they  wished  to  invest  in  men;  and  instead  of 


244        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

clipping  coupons  or  drawing  interest  or  receiving  fat  divi- 
dends, they  received  feudal  services  and,  on  certain  occa- 
sions, various  feudal  aids  and  other  revenues.  As  money 
again  became  more  plentiful,  they  often  invested  it,  in- 
stead of  land,  in  soldiers,  and  we  have  money  fiefs  as  well  as 
grants  of  land.  But  when  feudalism  first  came  into  exist- 
ence, land  was  the  chief  form  of  property  and  source  of  in- 
come, and  the  easiest  thing  to  grant  as  a  fief. 

When  once  men  began  to  enter  into  feudal  relationships, 
it  is  not  hard  to  see  how  the  custom  would  spread.  The 
The  spread  great  landholder  who  wanted  an  army  of  vassals 
of  feudalism  ^^  fight  for  him  against  barbarian  invaders  and 
against  his  rivals,  or  to  throng  his  castle  on  court  days,  di- 
vided his  land  in  numerous  fiefs  among  men  who  lacked 
estates  and  who  were  willing  and  able  to  fight.  They  were, 
perhaps,  not  nobles  to  begin  with,  but  their  new  estates 
soon  made  them  nobles.  The  peaceful  bishop  or  abbot,  who 
had  many  church  estates  under  his  care,  granted  part  of 
them  to  some  powerful  warrior  who  would  defend  the  rest. 
The  owner  of  only  one  or  two  villas,  who  was  not  strong 
enough  to  stand  alone  with  his  handful  of  peasants  against 
the  storm  of  invasion  or  the  cupidity  of  some  great  neighbor 
with  a  large  band  of  vassals,  would  be  forced  to  become  the 
vassal  of  the  lord  who  otherwise  might  take  his  land  from 
him  entirely,  or  else  the  vassal  of  some  other  lord  who  would 
protect  him  from  that  lord. 

But  the  spread  of  feudalism  did  not  stop  there.  The 
owner  of  only  one  or  two  villas  might  deem  it  advisable  to 
Complexity  become  the  vassal  of  more  than  one  lord,  and 
sib^"^"^^'^""'  thus  get  some  more  land,  especially  if  there  were 
infeudation  ^wo  or  more  great  men  who  were  in  a  position  to 
protect  or  to  injure  him,  and  if  he  could  find  time  to  render 
feudal  service  to  both  or  to  all,  and  if  they  were  not  hostile 
to  one  another.  Still  more  likely  was  the  man  who  owned  a 
number  of  estates  scattered  here  and  there  to  become  the 
vassal  for  one  of  them  to  one  lord  and  for  another  manor  the 
vassal  of  another  lord  in  its  vicinity.  Moreover,  lords  who 
already  had  vassals  under  them  entered  into  the  feudal  re- 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  245 

lationship  with  each  other.  Lord  A,  who  could  count  on  the 
service  of  a  few  vassals,  would  himself  become  the  vassal  of 
a  much  greater  lord,  B,  and  agree  upon  certain  occasions  to 
provide  B  with  ten  warriors.  Or  this  great  lord,  B,  having 
at  his  disposal  vast  estates  sufficient  to  support  several 
hundred  knights,  instead  of  trying  to  find  all  those  men 
himself,  would  infeudate  his  land  in  two  or  three  large  par- 
cels to  two  or  three  men  on  condition  that  each  of  them 
supply  him  with  a  number  of  knights.  Thus  they  would  each 
receive  a  large  fief  and  then  would  subinfeudate  a  large  part 
of  it,  as  a  modern  bank  pays  its  depositors  four  per  cent  in- 
terest and  then  loans  out  part  of  its  deposits  at  a  higher  rate. 
Their  vassals  would  be  his  subvassals,  and  he  would  be  the 
overlord  of  their  men.  In  some  parts  of  Europe,  notably 
France,  land  was  subinfeudated  in  this  way  several  times, 
so  that  as  many  as  seven  or  eight  persons  might  be  owing 
and  receiving  feudal  service  and  payments  from  a  single 
manor.  It  would  be  hard,  indeed,  to  say  who  owned  the 
land  in  such  a  case;  all  had  rights  in  it. 

Sometimes  very  complex  situations  were  created  in  the 
course  of  time.  Not  only  might  the  overlord  of  one  estate  be 
the  subvassal  in  the  case  of  another  villa,  but  he  might  even 
be  in  some  other  lord's  court  the  fellow  vassal  of  one  of  his 
own  vassals.  In  short,  lords  and  vassals  were  not  two  dis- 
tinct classes ;  the  relationship  of  lord  and  vassal  was  a  shift- 
ing one,  and  most  feudal  nobles  were  both  lord  and  vassal. 
This  situation,  however,  can  be  paralleled  in  the  modern 
business  world,  where  one  may  buy  stocks  in  any  number  of 
different  companies,  may  be  both  a  stockholder  and  a  bond- 
holder, may  be  the  president  of  one  corporation  and  a 
director  in  another  and  a  mere  stockholder  in  a  third.  When 
a  vassal  subinfeudated  his  land,  he  of  course  did  not  alien- 
ate it,  for  he  still  owed  his  services  to  his  lord  from  it  and 
still  himself  had  a  lordship  over  it.  Infeudation  and  sub- 
infeudation were  sometimes  carried  so  far,  in  the  course  of 
time,  that  estates  were  quite  dismembered  and  some  very 
small  fiefs  created.  Sometimes  the  income  from  a  single 
villa  would  be  split,  and  to  one  man  would  be  infeudated 


246        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  profit  from  the  beehives,  to  another  the  catch  from  the 
fish-ponds  and  income  from  the  mill.  Church  property  was 
subdivided  in  a  very  minute  and  intricate  manner,  so  that 
we  hear  of  a  parish  church  receiving  from  one  estate  *'one 
eighteenth  of  the  tithe  of  grain,  one  sixth  of  the  tithe  of 
wine,  and  one  half  of  the  small  tithes,  offerings,  and  lega- 
cies," and  similar  fractions  of  this  or  that  from  other  lands. 
Feudalism  existed  in  its  most  highly  developed  form  in 
the  north  and  east  of  what  is  now  France,  where  by  the 
Varying  fourteenth  century  it  had  come  to  be  the  rule 

Qcs^rGes  of 

feudalism  in  that  there  was  no  land  without  its  lord,  where 
pairtro/  ^^^  feudal  aristocracy  was  most  sharply  marked 
Europe  off  from  the  rest  of  society,  and  where  most  of 

the  peasants  remained  serfs  into  the  thirteenth  century.  In 
some  parts  of  Europe  feudalism  prevailed  less  universally 
and  society  was  not  divided  so  sharply  into  the  two  extremes 
of  serfs  at  the  bottom  and  feudal  nobles  at  the  top.  In 
southern  France,  for  instance,  many  landholders  recognized 
no  feudal  lord  and  would  not  admit  that  their  estates  were 
fiefs.  In  Brittany  serfdom  had  always  been  exceptional;  in 
Normandy  it  early  disappeared,  and  in  both  these  prov- 
inces the  word  "fief"  was  applied  to  the  free  holdings  of 
peasants  as  well  as  to  the  estates  of  nobles.  In  Germany 
powerful  lords  sometimes  granted  fiefs  to  their  servile  per- 
sonal attendants,  called  ministeriales ,  and  thus  made  knights 
out  of  serfs  or  slaves.  Many  features  of  feudalism  were 
found  in  England  before  the  Norman  conquest,  but  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror  introduced  it  in  a  more  developed  state 
from  the  Continent. 

The  chief  extant  monument  of  feudalism  is  the  stone 
castle.  Hundreds  of  these  combined  strongholds  and  arlsto- 
The  cratic  residences  still  exist  in  ruins  or  with  later 

feudal  castle  alterations,  as  evidence  of  the  long  prevalence  of 
feudalism  and  of  the  enterprise  and  power  of  its  many  lords. 
Hardly  any  two  castles  are  exactly  alike,  owing  in  part  to 
the  different  dates  at  which  they  were  built,  in  part  to  the 
varying  resources  and  requirements  of  the  feudal  nobles  for 
whom  they  were  constructed,  but  most  of  all  due  to  the 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  247 

diversity  of  their  sites,  to  which  the  fortresses  themselves 
were  closely  adapted.  If  the  castle  is  perched  on  an  in- 
accessible peak,  the  circuit  of  its  walls  will  be  of  an  irregular 
shape  following  the  edges  of  the  summit  and  taking  advan- 
tage of  every  precipice  and  chasm.  If  the  castle  is  built  upon 
comparatively  level  ground,  it  will  be  surrounded  by  a 
deep  moat  full  of  water,  so  that  the  besiegers  may  not  scale 
its  walls  with  ladders  and  movable  towers,  nor  make 
breaches  in  them  with  battering-rams.  Sometimes  the  cas- 
tle is  a  single  rectangular  tower;  other  castles  are  exten- 
sive complexes  of  buildings  and  courtyards  covering  acres. 
Some  castles  are  in  the  heart  of  cities,  some  are  in  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  Alps,  some  line  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  of 
many  other  rivers. 

A  few  common  characteristics  may  be  noted.  One  is  the 
prominence  of  towers,  square,  round,  or  pentagonal,  with 
pyramidical,  conical,  or  flat  roofs.  Some  of  these  towers 
line  the  outer  circuit  of  walls,  projecting  beyond  them  to 
enfilade  their  sides  and  bases,  and  rising  above  them  to 
command  their  tops.  Oldest  and  chief  of  the  towers  are  the 
donjon,  or  residence  of  the  lord,  and  the  keep,  or  central  and 
most  strongly  fortified  part  of  the  castle  where  the  garrison 
makes  its  last  stand.  Normally  the  defenders  of  the  castle 
fight  from  the  tops  of  its  walls  and  towers,  where  they  will 
be  farthest  away  from  the  range  of  the  missiles  of  the 
enemy  below,  and  whence  their  own  missiles  will  carry 
farthest  and  fall  with  most  force.  For  this  purpose  a  walk 
is  built  behind  a  parapet  all  along  the  top  of  the  wall.  The 
battlements  of  the  parapet  are  usually  crenelated;  that  is, 
openings  through  which  the  defenders  may  shoot  alternate 
with  sections  of  solid  wall  behind  which  they  may  stand 
protected  from  the  enemy's  arrows.  Sometimes,  especially 
around  the  tops  of  towers,  are  found  machicolations.  In 
this  case  the  battlement  is  built  out  beyond  the  walls  of  the 
tower  below  upon  projections  called  corbels,  and  the  floor  of 
the  encircling  walk  behind  the  parapet  is  pierced  with  num- 
erous openings  or  trapdoors  through  which  such  things  as 
boiling  pitch  and  molten  lead  may  be  poured  directly  upon 


248        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

those  trying  to  enter  the  tower  below  or  to  scale  its  walls. 
The  walls  of  the  castle  are  also  pierced  with  many  narrow 
slits  through  which  arrows  may  be  shot  at  the  foe.  These 
walls  are  very  thick,  especially  at  the  base  in  order  to  with- 
stand battering-rams  and  support  the  weight  above.  In- 
deed, the  castle  was  something  like  a  modern  battleship 
with  its  heavy  armor  plate,  its  portholes  and  gun  shields, 
and  its  turrets. 

Especial  care  was  taken  to  protect  the  entrance  to  the 
castle,  which  was  approached  by  a  drawbridge  suspended  by 
chains,  and  which  could  furthermore  be  closed  in  an  instant 
by  the  portcullis,  a  heavy  grating  which  was  let  fall  from 
above  like  a  drop  curtain.  The  gateway  might  be  further 
protected  by  flanking  towers;  and  even  if  the  enemy  got 
across  the  gap  left  by  the  lifted  drawbridge  and  broke 
through  the  portcullis,  they  still  might  find  themselves  in  a 
small  enclosed  court  or  a  dark  and  winding  vaulted  passage 
with  other  doors  and  barriers  yet  to  force  before  they  were 
really  within  the  castle  precincts  proper.  Similarly,  if  the 
foe  gained  a  footing  at  some  point  on  the  wall,  they  could 
not  easily  rush  along  the  walk  on  top  of  the  wall  to  other 
parts  of  the  castle,  since  the  circuit  of  the  walls  was  fre- 
quently interrupted  by  towers  through  which  one  had  to 
make  one's  way  by  crooked  passages  and  up  steep  stairs. 
Many  castles  also  had  subterranean  passages  of  which  their 
defenders  could  take  advantage,  but  which  were  unknown  to 
the  besiegers. 

Although  a  castle  might  be  impressive  by  its  bulk  and 
massiveness,  its  exterior  was  plain,  rough,  and  forbidding 
in  appearance.  The  towers,  battlements,  and  corbels,  how- 
ever, gave  considerable  variety  and  picturesqueness.  Un- 
less the  castle  was  large  enough  to  comprise  inner  courts, 
upon  which  windows  might  safely  open  and  where  decora- 
tive stone  carving  and  sculpture  could  be  indulged  in  with- 
out fear  of  its  being  damaged  by  stones  hurled  from  cata- 
pults ■ — •  unless  this  was  the  case,  the  rooms  of  the  interior 
were  of  necessity  dark  and  cold,  since  they  were  enclosed 
by  walls  several  feet  thick  with  only  a  rare  aperture.  Often 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  249 

an  entire  floor  of  the  castle  or  of  the  donjon  would  be  used 
as  the  great  hall,  where  the  lord  and  his  followers  ate  their 
meals,  drank  their  ale  or  wine,  held  court,  talked  together, 
or  warmed  themselves  before  the  fire  in  the  huge  open 
chimney-place.  When  we  read  of  horrible,  damp,  under- 
ground dungeons  where  prisoners  languished,  v/e  must 
remember  that  even  the  lord  and  lady  in  their  apartments 
of  state  w^ere  none  too  comfortable.  The  fireplace,  however, 
represented  a  great  improvement  in  domestic  life,  for 
chimney  flues  were  a  medieval  invention.  If  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  wished  to  avoid  filling  the  house  with  smoke, 
they  had  to  cook  outdoors,  although  the  Romans  had  hypo- 
causts  to  warm  their  floors  from  underneath. 

Although  the  castle  was  poorly  lighted  and  heated  and 
dreary  enough  within,  from  its  lofty  battlements  a  wonder- 
ful view  often  could  be  obtained  of  the  countryside  for  miles 
around.  One  rather  envies  the  feudal  lords  of  those  cheer- 
less keeps,  as  from  their  commanding  sites  one  gazes  down 
on  the  long  windings  of  a  beautiful  river  and  the  fertile 
expanse  of  valley  and  plain  below.  Not  long,  moreover, 
after  the  steep  climb  up  to  the  picturesque  ruins  on  im- 
pregnable heights,  one  becomes  conscious  of  a  keen  appe- 
tite, and  can  to  some  extent  sympathize  with  the  robber 
baron's  descents  from  his  stronghold  in  order  to  procure  a 
round  of  beef  or  saddle  of  mutton  from  such  sheep  and 
cattle,  or  a  cask  of  wine  and  mess  of  fish  from  such  traveling 
merchants,  as  strayed  within  his  ken  while  he  was  sui'x'^ey- 
ing,  with  an  even  closer  scrutiny  and  intenser  interest  than 
that  of  the  modern  tourist,  the  every  detail  of  the  surround- 
ing landscape. 

As  the  castle  suggests,  war  was  the  natural  state  of  the 
feudal  world.  Ambitious  lords,  especially  as  population  in- 
creased and  land  became  scarce,  waged  war  upon  Feudal 
one  another.  Younger  sons  tried  to  win  new  fiefs  ^^'^''^^^^ 
by  the  sword,  since  they  could  not  hope  to  inherit  them, 
and  often  fought  against  their  fathers  or  older  brothers. 
Lords  perhaps  fought  more  often  against  their  own  vassals, 
or  rather  against  men  whom  they  claimed  as  their  vassals, 


250        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

than  they  did  with  other  lords.  Vassals  were  ever  quarreling 
with  their  lords  over  the  conditions  of  their  vassalage  and 
the  services  which  they  were  bound  to  render.  In  many 
cases  men  were  unwilling  vassals  whose  fathers  had  been 
defeated  in  war  and  forced  to  acknowledge  the  \'ictor  as 
lord ;  such  men  naturally  would  revolt  at  the  first  good  op- 
portunity. The  w-hole  situation  was  one  of  disorderly  rivalry 
where  every  one  was  trying  to  increase  his  power  at  the 
expense  of  others.  There  were,  however,  some  mitigating 
features  about  feudal  warfare.  We  must  remember  for  one 
thing  that  war  had  been  incessant  before  feudalism  and  that 
it  has  not  ceased  yet.  Then  feudal  warfare  was  in  the  main 
conducted  on  a  small  scale;  it  was  local  or  neighborhood 
war  and  the  numbers  of  men  engaged  were  never  very  large 
nor  the  number  killed  very  great.  Their  armor  protected 
the  knights  fairly  well,  and  they  were  more  often  captured, 
imprisoned,  and  ransomed  than  they  were  slain.  One  reads 
of  bitter  strife  between  lord  and  vassal  or  father  and  son 
drawn  out  over  many  years,  and  finds  both  contestants  as 
hale  and  hearty  at  the  end  as  they  had  been  at  the  begin- 
ning. The  peasants,  whose  crops  were  destroyed  and  homes 
burned,  and  who  had  neither  armor  nor  the  prospect  of  large 
ransom  to  protect  their  lives,  were  the  ones  to  suffer  most 
from  these  neighborhood  wars  and  from  the  ravages  of 
robber  knights  who  got  their  living  largely  by  plundering 
raids. 

A  French  bishop,  intent  upon  reforming  this  evil  of  feu- 
dalism, proposed  in  1023  that  feudal  nobles  should  take  the 
The  Truce  following  oath :  "  I  will  not  take  away  ox  nor  cow 
of  God  j^Qj.  g^j^y  Q^i^gj-  beast  of  burden.    I  will  not  seize 

the  peasant  nor  the  peasant's  wife  nor  the  merchants.  I 
will  not  take  their  money,  nor  will  I  force  them  to  ransom 
themselves.  I  do  not  want  them  to  lose  their  property 
through  a  war  that  their  lord  wages,  and  I  won't  whip 
them  to  get  their  nourishment  away  from  them.  From  the 
first  of  March  to  All  Saints'  Day  I  will  seize  neither  horse 
nor  mare  nor  colt  from  the  pasture.  I  will  not  destroy  and 
burn  houses;  I  will  not  uproot  and   devastate  vineyards 


THE   FEUDAL  LAND   SYSTEM  251 

under  pretext  of  war;  I  will  not  destroy  mills  nor  steal  the 
flour."  A  measure  more  generally  adopted  by  the  clergy 
was  the  Truce  of  God,  by  which  bishops  forbade  fighting  in 
their  dioceses  over  the  week-end  and  on  a  number  of  church 
holidays.  It  can  readily  be  imagined  that  this  ecclesiastical 
prohibition  was  not  easy  to  enforce.  It  is,  however,  possible 
to  exaggerate  the  amount  of  robbing  and  slaughtering  of  the 
common  people  done  by  the  feudal  nobility  and  such  atroci- 
ties attributed  to  them  as  burning  churches  full  of  people  or 
gouging  out  babies'  eyes  with  their  own  hands.  The  pas- 
sages in  contemporary  writers  expressing  disapproval  and 
horror  at  such  cruel  deeds  are  not  a  proof  that  they  were 
common  practices,  but  are  a  proof  that  there  was  a  strong 
public  sentiment  against  such  conduct. 

Vassal  and  lord  alike  belonged  to  the  noble  class  and 
passed  their  lives  in  the  same  round  of  warlike  occupations 
and  amusements.  To  their  life  is  given  the  name 
"chivalry,  "  derived  from  the  Romance  word  for 
"horse"  and  denoting  the  Hfe  of  cavaliers  or  knights.  The 
earliest  literature  of  feudal  times  extols  physical  hardihood 
and  bravery,  condones  brigandage,  and  shows  war  brutally 
waged  as  almost  the  only  ideal  of  the  early  chevalier.  Later 
history  indicates  that  it  too  often  continued  to  be  his  prac- 
tice. But  this  military  aristocrat  in  time  developed,  or 
rather  had  constructed  for  him  by  the  Church  and  the  po- 
etical romancers,  a  set  of  social  ideals  of  which  our  present- 
day  use  of  the  term  "chivalry  "  is  a  reminiscence.  The  medi- 
eval clergy  insisted  that  the  true  knight  should  be  a  manly 
Christian,  should  respect  and  defend  the  Church,  should 
fight  against  heathen  and  heretics,  and  should  protect  the 
needy  and  those  in  distress.  The  minstrels  and  romancers, 
who  sometimes  found  the  lords  away  and  only  the  ladies 
at  home  when  they  visited  the  castles,  depicted  the  true 
knight  as  an  accomplished  gentleman  and  perfect  lover. 
The  duty  of  court  attendance  brought  knights  together, 
sometimes  in  the  society  of  the  other  sex,  and  so  helped  to 
develop  the  social  virtue  of  courtesy  or  good  manners  and 
various  chivalric  conventions. 


252        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

A  ceremony  of  Initiation  was  necessary  to  admit  one  to 
the  ranks  of  knighthood,  just  as  the  young  warrior  had  to 
be  admitted  to  the  German  tribe  in  the  days  of 
Tacitus.  The  prospective  knight  was  supposed 
to  perform  some  deed  of  arms  to  prove  his  worth,  and  then 
could  be  dubbed  a  knight  by  some  one  already  of  that 
station.  Kneeling  he  received  the  accolade,  originally  a 
hard  blow  on  the  neck  with  the  flat  of  a  sword  which  he 
would  remember  for  a  long  time.  Sooner  or  later  a  religious 
element  entered  the  ceremony  in  a  vigil  observed  over  his 
arms  in  a  church  the  previous  night  and  in  the  hearing  of 
mass  before  being  knighted.  Sometimes  bishops  conferred 
knighthood.  Before  becoming  a  knight  one  was  an  esquire 
or  squire,  a  condition  in  which  some  remained  permanently, 
not  so  much  through  failure  to  win  military  renown  as  be- 
cause of  the  expense  of  being  a  knight.  Knights  were  often 
accompanied  in  war  by  men-at-arms,  who  were  heavy- 
armed  foot-soldiers  and  who  were  usually  of  lower  birth  and 
less  wealth.  The  regular  course  of  feudal  education  and  path 
to  knighthood  was  for  the  aspirant  at  an  early  age  to  serve 
as  a  page  at  some  feudal  court,  and  there  to  learn  good 
manners,  how  to  ride  and  hunt  and  hawk,  and  to  fight  with 
spear,  sword,  and  battle-axe,  and  to  distinguish  different 
knights  and  noble  houses  by  the  colors  and  devices  on 
their  shields  and  coats  of  arms  —  the  science  of  heraldry. 
Next  he  would  attend  some  knight  in  the  field  of  war  as 
his  squire,  and  finally  be  knighted  himself. 

If  the  feudal  noble  was  at  home  alone  with  his  family 
and  peasants,  hunting  would  probably  be  his  main  diversion 
Feudal  and  it  also  serv^ed  to  supply  his  larder.    If  other 

position^'  knights  were  present,  they  would  amuse  them- 
of  woman  selves  and  keep  in  training  by  tilting  or  riding  at 
each  other  with  spears.  Such  mock  fighting  might  take  the 
form  either  of  jousts,  which  were  single  combats,  or  of  tour- 
naments, where  two  sides  were  formed  or  the  knights  par- 
ticipated in  a  general  melee.  Nobles  were  on  the  go  from 
one  of  their  estates  to  another  much  of  the  time.  The  ladies 
played  chess  and  games  of  chance  with  dice,  and  devoted 


THE   FEUDAL   LAND   SYSTEM  253 

much  attention  to  dress,  judging  from  the  tirades  of  preach- 
ers against  their  long  trains,  false  hair,  and  rouging.  The 
literature  of  chivalry  made  much  of  woman:  but  nobles,  as 
well  as  peasants,  sometimes  beat  their  wives,  and  the  con- 
temporary chronicles  tell  many  cases  of  lords  and  even 
kings  who  dealt  shamefully  with  their  wives.  Divorce  was 
frequent  among  the  upper  classes  despite  its  prohibition  by 
the  Church,  and  was  secured  by  alleging  that  the  married 
pair  were  too  closely  related  and  should  not  have  been  mar- 
ried to  begin  with. 

Feudalism  seems  to  the  modern  observer  who  looks  back 
on  it  an  intricate  and  almost  hopeless  tangle.  Such  confused 
conditions  were  due  not  merely  to  war  and  vio-  Continual 
lence  and  anarchy,  nor  further  to  the  compli-  feudd^rda- 
cated   network   of    feudal  relationships  at  any  tionships 
given  time,  but  also  to  the  continual  change  and  shifting  and 
reshaping  of  those  relations  with  passing  years,  making  soci- 
ety assume  new  forms  as  when  one  shakes  up  the  bits  of  glass 
in  a  kaleidoscope.    Death,  inheritance,  forfeiture,  escheat, 
vassals'  changing  lords,  partition  of  fiefs,   subinfeudation, 
union  of  fiefs  by  marriage,  conquests  in  war  —  all  these 
changes  kept  the  feudal  world  in  almost  as  fluctuating  a 
condition  as  the  modern  stock  market. 


254        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Life  of  the  Peasant. 

Seignobos,  The  Feudal  Regime,  translated  by  Dow,  pp.  3-26. 
Luchaire,  Social  France,  translated  by  Krehbiel,  pp.  381-408. 
Sedgwick,  Italy  in  the  Thirteenth  Century,  vol.  ll,  pp.  215-18. 
Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  418-25. 

Source  Selections  on  the  English  Manor. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  selections  157,  158,  160: 
or.  Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  ill, 
no.  5,  pp.  4,  7-1 1,  31-32. 
Questions  on  the  first  selection:  — 

1.  In  the  document  itself  what  other  name  than  manor  is  given  to 
the  estate? 

2.  Compare  the  number  of  available  ploughs  with  the  number  of 
men  using  them,  and  draw  inferences  therefrom. 

3.  How  much  land  would  each  villein  and  half-villein  have,  if  we 
assume  that  all  villeins  had  equal  amounts  of  land,  and  that 
every  half-villein  had  the  same  amount  as  every  other  half- 
villein? 

4.  Can  certain  payments  mentioned  be  apportioned  among  villeins 
and  half-villeins  so  as  to  come  out  even? 

5.  How  do  the  amounts  of  land  held  by  Ascelin  the  clerk  and  Rob- 
ert, son  of  Richard,  compare  in  size  with  the  tenancies  of  the 
villeins  and  half-villeins? 

6.  What  reasons  are  there  for  thinking  the  socmen  a  class  superior 
to  the  villeins? 

7.  Is  it  preferable  to  be  a  villein  or  a  half- villein? 

8.  How  do  you  explain  the  term,  "half- villein"? 

9.  What  is  meant  by  "the  demesne  of  the  court"? 
ID.   For  whom  is  the  "i  riding  horse"  kept? 

11.  Is  there  a  fish-pond  on  this  manor? 

12.  Is  there  a  priest  on  this  manor? 

13.  What  period  of  time  is  illustrated  by  this  document? 
Questions  on  the  second  selection:  — 

1.  What  different  classes  of  tenants  are  mentioned? 

2.  Is  the  document  systematically  arranged,  so  that  it  subdivides 
into  parts? 

3.  Do  men  in  the  same  class  hold  exactly  the  same  amounts  of  land 
and  perform  exactly  the  same  services  and  make  the  same  pay- 
ments? 

4.  Make  a  concise  list  of  the  varied  types  of  payments,  services, 
obligations,  and  restrictions  to  which  men  on  this  manor  are 
subject. 

5.  How  many  days  in  the  year  does  John  of  Cayworth  have 
to  work  for  his  lord?  (Since  John  seems  to  get  three  meals  a 
day,  a  piece  of  work  in  connection  with  which  he  receives  one 
or  two  meals  may  be  reckoned  one  third  or  two  thirds  of  a  day's 
work.) 


THE   FEUDAL  LAND   SYSTEM  255 

6.  What  is  the  annual  income  of  the  lord  from  the  entire  manor, 
reckoned  in  money  equivalents? 

7.  What  information  does  this  document   afford  concerning  the 
prices  of  certain  things  and  the  cost  of  living  then? 

8.  Explain  the  existence  of  a  single  tenant  for  life. 
Question  on  the  third  selection:  — 

I.  List  the  dues  and  restrictions  to  which  William  is  still  subjected 
after  he  has  been  emancipated. 

Life  of  the  Feudal  Nobility. 

Munro,  A  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap.  xiii. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  159-87. 

Seignobos,  Feudal  Regime,  translated  by  Dow,  pp.  1-2,  27-65. 

Luchaire,  Social  France,  translated  by  Krehbiel,  chap,  viii,  ix,  or  x. 

Bateson,  Medieval  England,  chap.  l,  11,  or  viii. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  418-25. 

Immunity,  Beneficium,  Commendation,  Fief,  Homage  and  Fealty. 
Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  selections  72,  74  (first 
half),  75,  78,  and  83  respectively.  The  same  or  similar  documents  will 
be  found  in  the  source  books  of  Ogg  and  Thatcher  and  McNeal. 

Passages  from  the  Feudal  Register  of  the  Counts  of  Champagne. 
Thatcher  and  AIcNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  374-82. 

German  Feudalism;  Ministerials  of  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
Thatcher  and  McNeal,  op.  cit.,  pp.  563-71. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

FEUDAL   STATES   OF   EUROPE 

The  lack  of  strong  central  government  had  been  one 
cause  of  that  feudalism  which  fills  the  political  gap  between 
Lack  of  ^^^  break-up  of  Charlemagne's  empire  and  the 

central  development  of  the  national  European  states  of 

governmen  j^Qj^gj-n  times.  The  various  kingdoms  founded 
by  the  German  invaders,  even  including  the  Prankish 
Empire  and  the  administrative  efforts  of  Charlemagne,  had 
not  proved  successful  experiments  in  the  political  art.  Their 
efforts  to  combine  the  last  embers  of  Roman  administra- 
tion with  their  primitive  institutions,  imported  like  green 
wood  from  German  forests,  had  resulted  in  failure  —  in  a 
steady  decrease  in  the  amount  of  government  and  a  constant 
development  in  the  direction  of  feudalism,  which  was  only 
partially  interrupted  by  the  energy  of  the  first  Carolingians. 
Indeed,  the  Carolingians  were  already  ruling  in  large  meas- 
ure by  feudal  methods.  With  the  disruption  of  Charlemagne's 
empire,  kings,  though  still  existing  in  name,  had  even  less 
power  than  before.  They  kept  resigning  their  prerogatives, 
surrendering  Normandy  to  the  invaders,  granting  immuni- 
ties from  their  government  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  and 
giving  away  their  private  estates  in  the  vain  hope  of  secur- 
ing followers  upon  whom  they  could  rely.  In  the  localities 
political  powers  and  offices  had  been  turned  into  private 
property  and  were  exercised  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  personal 
profit.  Any  one  who  wished,  waged  war,  coined  money, 
held  a  court  of  justice.  But  no  one  fought  in  his  army, 
accepted  his  money,  or  attended  his  court,  except  the  few 
whom  he  could  compel  to  do  this. 

But  along  with  such  division  came  the  feudal  bond,  which 
united  men  and  united  territory,  though  primarily  only  in 
a  personal  and  private  way.  It  gradually  led,  however,  to 
the  growth  of  political  units  and  to  new  forms  of  government. 


FEUDAL  STATES  OF   EUROPE  257 

The  great  lord,  who  had  many  vassals,  could  by  means  of 
their  military  service  command  a  small  army;  poetical 
and  so  was  in  a  position  to  exercise  the  military  features  of 
functions  of  the  State,  and  to  enforce  obedience 
to  his  commands.  It  was  furthermore  the  duty  of  his  vassals 
to  attend  his  court,  and  this  supplied  him  with  a  council  of 
state  and  the  opportunity  to  exercise  judicial  powers.  They 
owed  him  occasional  feudal  aids  and  reliefs;  he  could  also 
fill  his  treasury  by  exercise  of  the  rights  of  wardship  and 
marriage ;  thus  feudalism  had  its  equivalents  for  state  taxa- 
tion and  revenue.  But  in  feudalism  everything  is  expressed 
in  different  terms  from  those  employed  in  the  modern  state, 
or  in  the  ancient  city-state,  or  in  the  Roman  Empire.  It  has 
its  peculiar  names  for  its  own  peculiar  institutions:  feudal 
aids  instead  of  taxes,  knight  service  in  place  of  standing 
armies,  court  attendance  rather  than  a  congress  or  parlia- 
ment or  chamber  of  deputies,  vassals  in  place  of  citizens, 
personal  lordship  and  dependent  land  tenure  instead  of 
nationality  and  territorial  sovereignty. 

Although  feudalism  could  in  some  measure  approximate 
to  the  military,  legislative,  judicial,  and  financial  functions 
of  the  State,  the  lord's  power  was  greatly  limited  Limitations 

in  all  these  respects.    He  could  require  military  ?"  the  polit- 
ical power 
service  of  his  vassals,  but  he  could  not  keep  them  of  the 

from  fighting  also  for  some  other  lord  or  from  ^^^^^'- '°''" 
waging  war  on  their  own  account.  He  could  make  war,  but 
he  could  not  preserve  the  peace  in  the  fiefs  of  his  vassals. 
He  could  procure  the  assent  of  his  vassals  assembled  at  his 
court  to  certain  laws  or  policies,  but  he  could  not  send  his 
officials  into  their  fiefs  to  see  to  the  execution  of  these  meas- 
ures. He  had  to  leave  all  that  to  the  vassals  themselves. 
He  had  no  power  of  local  administration  save  in  his  own 
domains.  At  his  court  he  could  judge  his  vassals  and  settle 
their  disputes;  but  the  subvassals,  to  whom  they  had  sub- 
infeudated  portions  of  their  fiefs,  did  not  attend  his  court 
and  he  found  it  difficult  to  exert  any  control  over  them, 
since  all  their  services  and  payments  were  rendered,  not  to 
him,  but  to  their  lords  who  were  his  vassals.  He  could  im- 


258        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

pose  no  new  taxes  on  his  vassals,  but  could  take  only  the 
customary  and  stipulated  feudal  dues.  He  might  establish 
tolls  and  customs  duties  on  merchants  and  travelers  through 
his  own  domains,  but  his  vassals  would  undoubtedly  claim 
that  right  within  their  fiefs.  Moreover,  the  obligations  of 
individual  vassals  to  him  might  vary  greatly.  There  was  no 
necessary  uniformity  in  the  loyalty  and  ser\^ices  that  they 
owed.  Finally,  his  hold  upon  many  of  them  was  so  slight, 
that  for  them  to  throw  off  his  rule  entirely  and  attempt  to 
maintain  their  independence  did  not  seem  so  heinous  an 
offense  as  rebellion  in  a  modern  state,  and  was  much  easier 
to  carry  through  than  to  foment  a  revolution  against  the 
well-organized  states  of  to-day. 

A  very  important  feature  of  the  feudal  state  was  the 
limiting  of  the  lord's  power  by  the  rights  of  the  vassal  and 
The  feudal  ^^  ^^^  terms  of  a  contract  expressed  or  under- 
idea  of  stood  between  lord  and  vassal.   It  was  generally 

recognized  that  there  were  things  which  the  lord 
could  do  and  things  which  he  could  not  do.  If  he  exceeded 
his  rights,  his  vassals  were  entitled  to  take  up  arms  against 
him,  a  privilege  which  they  were  never  slow  to  exercise. 
Moreover,  meeting  together  at  his  court,  they  shared  in  his 
government  and  came  to  act  as  a  body  which  possessed  in 
itself  possibilities  in  the  direction  of  representative  govern- 
ment. 

The  sphere  of  influence  of  a  feudal  lord  —  in  other  words, 
the  lands  held  of  him  by  his  vassals  —  did  not  necessarily 
Area  of  the  form  a  compact  and  clearly  defined  territory 
feudal  state  \[]^^  ^|^^^  ^f  3^  modern  state.  His  vassals  were  apt 
to  be  somewhat  scattered  about,  with  territory  intervening 
which  he  could  not  bring  into  vassalage  to  himself,  either 
because  it  belonged  to  the  Church  or  was  defended  by 
castles  too  strong  for  him  to  take.  However,  feudal  divi- 
sions tended  to  follow  geographical  and  racial  lines  pretty 
closely.  Also  feudal  lords  made  every  effort  to  extend  their 
control  over  a  compact  and  easily  accessible  territory, 
though  they  often  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  add- 
ing some  distant  possession,  if  opportunity  offered.   But  of 


FEUDAL  STATES  OF   EUROPE  259 

course  as  a  rule  it  was  easier  for  them  to  keep  their  neigh- 
bors in  vassalage  than  to  exact  service  and  fidelity  from  far- 
off  fiefs. 

Feudalism,  in  theory  at  least,  would  not  admit  of  distinct 
states  with  distinct  territories,  but  would  require  a  succes- 
sion of  lordships  within  lordships.  At  the  head  pgyjaj 
would  be  the  king  or  emperor.  Then  would  come  theory  of 
his  great  vassals,  the  dukes  and  counts  with  their 
feudal  courts,  owing  duties  to  the  king  as  their  suzerain, 
but  free  to  govern  their  subvassals.  Many  of  these  sub- 
vassals  might  boast  strong  castles  and  considerable  lands 
which  they  had  subinfeudated  to  vassals  of  their  own,  over 
whom  they  might  claim  some  powers  of  government.  And 
any  vassal  or  subvassal  would  at  least  have  his  manorial 
court,  where  he  lorded  it  over  his  serfs.  No  one  had  com- 
plete governmental  power  or  sovereignty,  just  as  no  one 
person  had  complete  private  ownership  of  the  land  of  the 
fief.  The  functions  of  government,  as  well  as  real  estate, 
incomes,  and  services,  had  been  feudalized. 

Feudal  theory,  however,  was  never  fully  accepted  in 
medieval  politics,  just  as  all  the  land  was  never  divided  into 
fiefs  and  manors  and  just  as  there  were  always  Actual  states 
some  persons  who  were  neither  lords  nor  vassals  of  the  feudal 
nor  serfs.  Kings  still  claimed  to  be  something 
more  than  mere  feudal  overlords.  The  lords  who  built  up 
local  feudal  states  usually  tried  in  practice  to  exercise  greater 
powers  than  strict  feudal  theory  would  allow.  Sometimes 
they  possessed  some  other  title  or  inherited  position  than 
that  of  a  feudal  lord  upon  which  to  base  their  claim  to  rule. 
The  Dukes  of  Normandy  and  Bavaria,  for  instance,  had 
once  been  the  leaders  of  independent  peoples.  Many  a 
feudal  state  had  a  natural  or  historical  unity  not  given  to  it 
by  feudalism.  Not  all  feudal  lords  were  able  to  build  up 
states,  and  a  state  based  solely  upon  feudalism  was  not 
likely  to  last  long.  But  for  several  hundred  years  all  states 
were  greatly  affected  and  colored  by  feudalism.  Even  kings 
found  themselves  not  only  limited  in  power  by  feudal- 
ism at  every  turn,  but  exercising  most  of  the  power  that 


26o        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

they  did  have  through  feudal  channels  and  ruling  by  feudal 
methods. 

We  should  further  realize  that  the  so-called  feudal  states 
of  medieval  Europe,  instead  of  being  perverse  and  regret- 
Feudal  states  table  obstacles  to  true  geographical  and  racial 
and  medi-  and  Hnguistic  union,  instead  of  being  ugly, 
broken  fragments  of  a  once  splendid  empire  of 
Charlemagne  or  of  an  ideal  France  or  Germany  or  Italy, 
really  often  were  the  organic  units  of  their  age  and  repre- 
sented local  life  and  vigor  and  enterprise  and  governable 
groups  a  great  deal  better  than  did  the  impossible  empires 
aimed  at  by  Charlemagne  and  Justinian  and  Otto  the  Great 
and  Henry  II.  We  should  also  realize  that  there  was  as  yet 
no  such  thing  as  the  France  of  to-day,  nor  even  a  French 
language  and  a  French  people,  nor  an  Italian  tongue  and 
an  Italian  people.  When  the  King  of  "France"  forced  his 
rule  upon  Toulouse,  he  was  not  uniting  peoples  already  one 
in  language,  spirit,  and  customs,  and  everything  else  ex- 
cept government ;  rather  he  was  doing  violence  to  national 
spirit  and  blotting  out  a  beautiful  language  and  terminat- 
ing a  brilliant  period  of  culture.  The  Prussian  annexation 
of  Alsace-Lorraine  in  1870  was  not  a  circumstance  to  the 
extermination  of  Toulouse  in  southern  France  by  orthodox 
crusaders  and  by  the  Lord  of  Paris  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
In  that  century  we  find  mentioned  among  the  different 
nations  at  the  University  of  Paris,  not  Frenchmen  and 
Italians,  but  Lombards,  Romans,  and  Sicilians,  Flemings, 
Burgundians,  Poitevins,  Bretons,  and  Normans. 

The  modern  European  states  are  simply  historical 
growths  and  the  outcome  of  a  vast  concourse  of  varied  cir- 
Medieval  cumstances,  rather  than  the  systematic  working- 
states  and  Qut  of  any  fine  principles  of  nationality.  To- 
modern 
"national"     day  the  peoples  of  those  states  have  grown  mto 

states  homogeneous  nations,  distinct  from  one  another. 

But  in  their  origins  those  states  consisted  of  elements  by  no 
means  homogeneous.  The  advent  of  our  modern  state  often 
meant  an  increase  of  centralization  at  the  expense  of  local 
enterprise  and  prosperity.  France  of  our  day  is  dotted  with 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  261 

remote  ruins  of  castles  and  with  dull  towns  of  depleted 
population,  which  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  booming  centers 
of  military,  political,  economic,  and  artistic  life.  We  must 
therefore  not  approach  the  feudal  period  with  the  assump- 
tion that  a  modern  "national"  state  is  necessarily  vastly 
superior  to  a  "feudal"  state,  still  less  with  the  idea  that  the 
national  state  is  the  guiding  star  of  all  European  history  and 
the  goal  toward  which  everything  moved.  We  must  be  care- 
ful not  to  see  modern  nationalities  before  they  really  exist. 
If  one  is  studying  the  history  of  some  one  European  country, 
like  France  or  Germany,  it  is  well  enough  to  go  back  to 
Julius  Caesar  or  to  men  of  the  old  stone  age  in  that  region, 
if  one  wants  to ;  but  as  for  the  states  that  we  call  France  and 
Germany  and  Italy  to-day,  there  was  nothing  like  them  in 
the  feudal  period.  There  was  an  England  even  then,  it  is 
true,  but  no  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
much  less  a  British  Empire. 

What  we  now  turn  to,  therefore,  is  a  survey  of  the  feudal 
states  of  western  Europe  during  the  period  from  the  end  of 
the  Frankish  Empire  to  the  twelfth  century.  Cer-  Kingdoms 
tain  kings  traced  back  their  claim  to  authority  qJ''^^^  ^^^"^ 
to  the  Frankish  Empire,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  magne's 
had  split  into  several  divisions.  There  came  in  the  ^'"P"'^ 
ninth  century  to  be  two  kings  of  the  Franks;  one  of  the 
East  Franks,  and  one  of  the  West  Franks.  These  vague  des- 
ignations, which  replace  the  old  Austrasia  and  Neustria, 
leave  the  exact  location  of  their  kingdoms  discreetly  doubt- 
ful. As  for  the  third  Merovingian  Kingdom,  Burgundy,  it 
was  for  a  time  divided  into  an  Upper  Burgundy  in  the 
mountains  and  a  Lower  Burgundy  down  the  Rhone.  In  934 
the  two  were  reunited,  but  henceforth  were  known  as  the 
Kingdom  of  Aries,  from  the  capital  city.  This  kingdom  lasted 
for  a  century  to  1032.  In  Italy  practically  no  one  was  king  in 
any  real  sense  from  the  death  of  Louis  II  in  875  until  the 
coronation  of  Otto  I  as  emperor  at  Rome  in  962,  although 
a  Hugo  of  Provence  for  some  time  claimed  the  title. 

Among  the  East  Franks,  Arnulf  of  Carinthia  succeeded 
the  deposed   Charles  in  887.     A  contemporary  has  well 


262        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

summed  up  his  reign  in  the  sentence,  "While  Arnulf  was 
The  East  frittering  away  his  time,  many  petty  kingdoms 
Prankish         arose."    The  brief  reign  of  the  six-year-old  Louis 

ing  om  (899-911)  was  filled  with  feuds  between  the 
nobles,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  great  tribal  Duchies  of  Saxony, 
Franconia,  Lotharingia,  Thuringia,  Suabia  (formerly  Ala- 
mannia),  and  Bavaria  would  become  independent  states. 
With  the  death  of  Louis  the  Carolingian  house  ceased  to 
rule  among  the  East  Franks.  Conrad  of  Franconia  (911- 
918)  had  to  fight  all  the  other  duchies  to  secure  recognition 
as  king.  Henry  of  Saxony  (919-936)  seldom  left  his  own 
domain  lands  and  had  to  deed  away  many  of  his  regalian 
rights  in  Bavaria,  although  he  was  able  to  force  the  Dukes 
of  Suabia  and  Bavaria  to  recognize  him  as  king.  He  also,  as 
we  have  seen,  checked  the  inroads  of  the  Slavs  and  finally 
won  a  victory  over  the  Magyars.  At  the  coronation  of 
Henry's  son.  Otto  I  (936-973),  all  the  dukes  did  homage, 
and  those  of  Lorraine,  Franconia,  Suabia,  and  Bavaria 
served  him  in  the  court  offices  of  chamberlain,  steward, 
cup-bearer,  and  marshal  respectively;  but  within  the  next 
five  years  three  of  them  and  also  his  own  brother  and  half- 
brother  revolted  against  his  rule,  and  later  there  were  other 
rebellions. 

Otto  gained  prestige  by  repelling  the  invaders  of  German 
territory,  and  in  962  he  went  to  Rome  and  was  crowned 
The  Holy  emperor,  reviving  on  a  smaller  scale  the  empire 
Roman  of  Charlemagne.   Henceforth  the  German  duch- 

"^^"^^  ies  and  portions  of  Italy  were  united  in  a  loose 

and  weak  union  known  as  the  Holy  Roman  or  Medieval 
Empire.  In  theory  the  emperors  claimed  a  wider  jurisdic- 
tion than  this,  regarding  themselves,  on  the  one  hand,  as 
successors  of  the  old  Roman  emperors  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  feudal  suzerains  of  the  kings  of  other  European 
countries,  just  as  these  were  the  overlords  of  their  great  vas- 
sals. But  the  emperors  were  unable  to  develop  this  feudal 
overlordship  and  imperial  ideal  into  actual  sovereignty,  as 
some  kings  finally  were  to  succeed  in  doing.  One  reason  for 
their  failure  was  that  the  popes,  too,  were  soon  to  assert  their 


HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

AND  SOUTHERN  ITALY 

about  the  year  1000 

0  50  100  ISO 3 

|Sarauen  Territory  |  |  Holj  R.iman  Etr 

JBjrzantine  Territory         f  j  Independent  or  serai-in.lepemlo 

Christian  principalities 


I.onjitnde  East  li  '  from  Green»i,,t, 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  263 

claim  to  treat  kings  as  vassals,  and  to  exercise  a  portion  at 
least  of  the  prerogatives  of  Constantine,  the  first  Christian 
emperor.  Of  this  we  shall  have  further  occasion  to  speak 
in  connection  with  the  history  of  the  Papacy  during  this 
period.  For  our  present  purpose  it  is  enough  to  note  that 
the  Medieval  Empire,  although  it  encouraged  commerce 
and  some  interchange  of  ideas  between  the  Germans  and 
the  Italians,  in  the  long  run  assisted  rather  than  checked 
the  prevalence  of  feudalism  and  local  division  in  both  Italy 
and  Germany.  The  emperors  claimed  to  be  overlords  of  so 
much  territory  that  they  did  not  become  real  governors 
of  any  one  locality.  Had  they  remained  in  Germany  and 
painstakingly  developed  a  machinery  of  government  of  their 
own,  or  had  they  devoted  their  entire  attention  to  Italian 
affairs,  they  might  have  developed  a  strong  kingdom  in  one 
place  or  the  other.  Instead  they  roamed  about,  posing  as 
international  arbiters  and  forcing  the  kings  of  lands  like 
Poland  and  Bohemia  to  become  their  vassals. 

The  rule  of  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor  seems  to  have 
been  for  the  most  part  personal,  offhand,  and  unsystematic. 
For  the  first  century  after  Otto  there  is  extant  L^ck  of 
no  imperial  law  or  ordinance  directed  toward  the  imperial 

r  J       J         T-u  government 

mamtenance  01  peace  and  order.  1  here  were  no 
permanent  imperial  law  courts,  no  professional  judges  nor 
legal  advisers.  There  was  no  central  exchequer  and  no 
financial  literature  by  imperial  officials  has  reached  us.  The 
emperors  allowed  many  other  lords  to  coin  money  and  made 
no  effort  to  keep  up  the  standard  of  the  coinage.  Customs 
duties  and  tolls  also  passed  from  the  emperors  into  the 
hands  of  other  lords.  Private  war  was  tolerantly  regarded 
by  public  opinion,  even  when  it  was  directed  against  the 
emperor  himself;  and  Germans  at  feud  with  their  country- 
men not  infrequently  made  alliances  with  the  Slavs  and 
Hungarians.  The  fact  that  the  emperor  was  elected  by  the 
other  great  lords,  and  that,  while  sometimes  son  succeeded 
father,  the  office  did  not  remain  permanently  in  the  hands 
of  any  one  dynasty,  also  weakened  the  power  of  the  central 
government. 


264        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  emperors  left  the  local  government  largely  in  the 
hands  of  dukes  and  other  lords,  and  were  content  if  the 
Local  inde-  dukes  were  loyal  to  them  in  imperial  matters  and 
pendence  of    furnished  them  with  contingents  to  make  up  an 

dukes  and  •   i  i  •    i        i  • 

margraves  army  With  which  they  might  rampage  about, 
in  Germany  g^^  ^^^  dukes  were  not  inclined  to  do  anything 
of  the  sort,  and  the  emperors  were  constantly  having  to 
bring  them  to  book.  The  emperors  tried  making  members 
of  their  own  families  dukes,  but  even  these  did  not  remain 
loyal.  Finally  Henry  III  (1039-1056)  tried  to  be  duke 
everywhere  himself,  but  found  this  scheme  scarcely  a 
success,  and  all  its  results  were  lost  during  the  minority  of 
his  son.  Even  in  the  marks  or  new  frontier  territories,  es- 
tablished against  and  won  from  the  barbarians,  as  well 
as  in  the  old  duchies  with  their  lingering  tribal  or  national 
spirit,  the  emperors  failed  to  establish  a  strong  government 
of  their  own  and  allowed  them  to  become  the  fiefs  or  family 
possessions  of  the  margraves.  Some  of  these  local  princes 
developed  a  machinery  of  government  which  the  Empire  as 
a  whole  lacked.  By  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria  kept  court  in  royal  style  and  exercised 
many  regalian  rights.  He  had  his  privy  council,  his  chan- 
cery, and  his  court  of  justice,  to  which  cases  might  be 
appealed  from  the  courts  of  the  counts,  his  vassals,  who 
might  be  deposed  if  they  failed  in  their  duties.  The  duke 
could  summon  a  general  assembly  of  the  land,  which  was 
divided  into  administrative  and  judicial  districts.  If  he 
had  no  son  to  follow  him,  the  duke  could  name  his  successor. 
The  emperors  could  so  little  rely  on  their  lay  vassals  that 
they  turned  for  support  to  the  bishops  and  showered  lands 
^  ,  .  .  and  favors  upon  them  in  the  hope  of  building 
cal  princes  up  a  loyal  party.  Thus  began  the  numerous 
of  Germany  ecclesiastical  states  of  Germany,  where  bishops 
and  abbots  ruled  much  like  secular  lords  and  sometimes 
fought  as  other  feudal  nobles  did.  Once  they  even  fought  in 
a  church  in  the  emperor's  presence.  Another  instructive 
incident  took  place  in  Mainz  Cathedral  on  Easter,  1184. 
The  Abbot  of  Fulda  and  Archbishop  of  Cologne  quarreled 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  265 

as  to  who  should  sit  at  the  emperor's  left,  and  the  emperor 
asked  the  archbishop  to  yield  the  point.  Thereupon  the 
angry  archbishop  started  to  withdraw  to  his  lodgings.  The 
Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  although  as  his  title  indicates 
he  was  supposed  to  be  closely  connected  with  the  palace  and 
the  emperor,  promptly  arose  to  follow  the  archbishop,  ex- 
cusing himself  to  the  emperor  by  saying  that  he  was  the 
vassal  of  the  archbishop.  Other  dukes  and  counts  also  arose 
to  leave,  and  from  remarks  which  passed  between  them  and 
the  abbot's  adherents  it  was  plain  that  there  was  going  to 
be  a  fight,  especially  as  the  archbishop  had  come  to  Mainz 
attended  by  some  four  thousand  armed  men.  The  emperor 
accordingly  apologized  to  the  huffy  prelate,  and  the  abbot 
had  to  surrender  the  coveted  precedence. 

About  900  the  north  of  Italy  was  divided  into  a  num- 
ber of  duchies  and  counties,  from  the  Duke  of  Friuli  in  the 
east  to  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  in  the  west.  ^    ,  .  .    , 

A         1  •  1       1      r  rr^  11       Feudal  Italy 

Another  marquis  was  lord  of  1  uscany,  and  the 

estates  claimed  by  the  Papacy  were  really  in  the  hands  of 
petty  nobles.  In  the  south,  what  with  fragments  of  Lom- 
bard duchies  and  the  conflicting  claims  of  the  Byzantines 
and  Saracens,  the  subdivision  was  worst  of  all.  The  revival 
of  the  imperial  idea  by  Otto  the  Great  did  not  alter  con- 
ditions much.  The  emperor  made  occasional  trips  to  Italy, 
received  homage  from  various  lords,  appointed  various 
officials  to  look  after  his  interests,  and  then  went  back  to 
Germany  again.  After  some  years  he  would  return  to  find 
all  once  more  in  confusion.  Otto  II  (973-983)  and  Otto  III 
(983-1002),  it  is  true,  devoted  their  reigns  chiefly  to  Italian 
affairs,  but  without  achieving  important  permanent  results. 
Their  successor,  Henry  II  (1002-1024),  came  thrice  to  Italy 
in  over  twenty  years  and  each  time  to  fight.  In  1004  he  got 
as  far  as  Pavia  where  he  received  the  Lombard  crown.  In 
1014  he  reached  Rome  and  obtained  the  imperial  crown. 
In  1022  he  fought  against  the  Byzantines  in  southern  Italy. 
Even  the  city  of  Rome  showed  little  loyalty  to  the  emperor. 
Seldom  was  a  coronation  held  without  the  Roman  populace 
trying  to  drive  the  German  troops  from  the  city. 


266        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

During  the  century  from  887,  when  the  last  Carolingian 
emperor,  Charles,  was  deposed,  until  987,  when  Hugh  Capet 
Change  of  founded  a  new  and  lasting  dynasty,  named 
dynasty  in  Capetian  after  him,  the  West  Prankish  Kingdom 
Prankish  was  Weakened  by  a  struggle  for  the  throne 
Kingdom  between  rival  factions  of  the  feudal  nobility, 
supporting  on  the  one  hand  the  last  members  of  the 
Carolingian  line  and  on  the  other  the  family  of  the  Counts 
of  Paris.  First  a  member  of  one  line  ruled  and  then  a 
member  of  the  other,  and  a  Rudolph  of  Burgundy  was  also 
king  for  a  time.  But  after  the  death  of  the  Carolingian, 
Louis  V,  in  987,  no  more  of  his  line  reigned,  and  the  Cape- 
tians  ruled  in  unbroken  succession  in  the  direct  male  line 
until  1328. 

Before  he  was  elected  king,  Hugh  Capet  already  bore  the 
title,  Duke  of  France.  This  small  feudal  duchy  was  after 
Meaning  of  the  lapse  of  centurics  to  give  its  name  to  most  of 
the'^Middle'^  the  territory  between  the  Pyrenees,  the  Mediter- 
Ages  ranean,  the  Alps,  and  the  Rhine.    But  at  this 

time  the  name  "France"  applied  to  a  very  small  district. 
Paris  was  well-nigh  its  southernmost  point  and  it  did  not 
extend  as  far  north  as  Senlis.  Thus  it  was  less  than  twenty- 
five  miles  across  from  north  to  south,  and  not  much  more 
from  east  to  west.  Its  southwestern  boundary  was  a  few 
miles  of  the  river  Seine;  its  southeastern,  a  few  miles  of 
the  Marne,  which  empties  into  the  Seine  near  Paris.  On  the 
west  it  was  bounded  by  the  Oise,  a  tributary  of  the  Seine, 
and  on  the  east  by  a  small  affluent  of  the  Marne  near  the 
town  of  Meaux.  To  this  day  the  peasants  of  a  village  near 
Meaux  speak  of  going  to  France  when  they  cross  the  Marne. 
The  fact  that  this  medieval  France  was  almost  entirely 
surroufided  by  rivers  —  for  a  little  stream,  la  Theve,  forms 
its  northern  boundary  —  probably  gave  rise  to  the  expres- 
sion, lie  de  France.  In  later  times,  however,  we  find  the 
name,  lie  de  France,  applied  to  a  much  larger  district. 

From  the  tenth  to  the  twelfth  century  the  territory 
which  the  Capetians  could  really  call  their  own  was  neither 
so  extensive  nor  so  rich  as  the  domains  of  several  feudal 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  267 

lords.  Hugh  had  inherited  from  his  father,  Hugh  the 
White,  the  most  powerful  lord  of  the  time,  the  The  early 
counties  of  Paris,  Senlis,  Orleans,  and  Dreux,  Capetmns 
and  the  jurisdiction  over  two  richly  endowed  abbeys.  Hugh 
the  White  had  also  acquired  Burgundy,  a  feudal  territory 
sliced  from  the  northwest  corner  of  the  old  kingdom  of 
Burgundy,  but  that  duchy  passed  to  Hugh's  brother.  By 
the  time  Hugh  ended  his  reign  in  996  he  had  given  away  so 
much  land  to  secure  supporters  for  his  dynasty  that  only 
fragments  remained  of  the  extensive  territory  controlled 
by  his  father.  His  territorial  power  as  king  was  really  less 
than  it  had  been  as  duke.  It  is  true  that  from  the  English 
Channel  to  the  Pyrenees  public  documents  were  dated  by 
the  year  of  his  reign,  but  this  was  merely  nominal  recogni- 
tion of  his  royalty.  Of  his  personal  appearance  and  private 
life  we  know  nothing  with  certainty.  His  immediate  suc- 
cessors were  no  more  powerful  than  many  feudal  lords  of 
the  time,  and  were  not  nearly  so  interesting  personalites  as 
some  of  the  barons.  One  hundred  years  after  Hugh  Capet's 
death,  Philip  I  still  found  interspersed  among  his  villas  the 
castles  of  men  who  defied  his  power  and  acted  as  seemed 
good  to  them.  However,  he  pushed  as  far  south  as  Bourges, 
when  the  viscount  of  that  town  sold  out  to  him  in  iioi  in 
order  to  go  to  the  Holy  Land. 

It  was  a  decided  step  in  advance  when  the  energetic  and 
warlike  Louis  VI  (1108-1137)  took  the  donjons  of  the  cas- 
tellans in  the  neighborhood  of  Paris,  who  had    j^^j 
been  making  the  Capetian  kings  so  much  trouble,  of  Louis 
But  this  was  accomplishing  only  what  many 
feudal  lords  had  achieved  already;  namely,  the  bringing  of 
a  comparatively  small  and  compact  territory  directly  under 
their  control.   However,  Louis  was  also  powerful  enough  to 
undertake  an  expedition  as  far  south  as  Clermont-Farrand 
in  order  to  punish  the  Count  of  Auvergne  for  having  injured 
the  Church;  and  even  the  powerful  Duke  of  Aquitaine  de- 
cided that  it  would  be  best  to  render  homage,  when  he  saw 
the  size  of  Louis's  army.   The  Abbot  Suger  was  the  right- 
hand  man  of  Louis  VI  and  of  his  successor,  and  kept  down 


268        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

avaricious  and  corrupt  favorites  at  court  and  maintained 
order  and  system  at  home  while  the  king  was  away  at  his 
wars.  Suger  also  has  left  us  a  Life  of  Louis  VI.  Besides  be- 
ing a  great  fighter,  the  king  was  a  great  hunter  and  a  great 
eater.  The  latter  pursuit  finally  triumphed  over  the  former 
pastime,  for  at  forty-six  Louis  became  too  fat  to  mount  a 
horse.  Louis  was  good-natured,  and  simple  and  unaffected 
in  his  manners.  His  slight  paleness  contemporary  gossip 
attributed  to  an  attempt  by  his  stepmother  to  poison  him. 
He  was  not  persuaded  to  marry  until  he  had  reached  the 
age  of  thirty-five,  when  he  wedded  a  very  ugly  niece  of  the 
pope,  by  whom  he  had  six  sons  and  three  daughters. ' 

Despite  the  small  territory  actually  under  their  rule,  the 
early  Capetians  continued  to  regard  themselves  as  successors 
^j^  of  Charlemagne.    They  retained  the  court  cere- 

Capetian  mony  which  Charlemagne  had  borrowed  from 
constitution  (^Qj^g^^ntinople,  and  their  proclamations  and 
state  papers  had  the  same  high  tone,  compounded  of  Bib- 
lical and  of  imperial  Roman  phrases.  But  their  machinery 
of  government  was  slight  and  in  the  main  feudal.  There 
were  the  usual  household  offices  of  chancellor,  seneschal, 
chamberlain,  butler,  and  constable,  held  as  hereditary  posts 
by  their  chief  vassals.  Their  feudal  court,  the  curia  regis, 
was  attended  for  the  most  part  only  by  those  vassals  within 
easy  reach  of  Paris,  but  these  were  remarkably  faithful  in 
their  attendance,  although  the  king  often  summoned  them 
as  frequently  as  once  a  month.  He  seems  to  have  initiated 
all  the  business  brought  before  them,  and  only  a  few  of  them 
ventured  to  discuss  and  debate  his  proposals;  but  he  evi- 
dently wished  to  secure  their  assent  before  taking  action. 
To  look  after  his  own  estates  the  king  had  local  officials 
called  prevots,  who  collected  the  revenue  from  his  villas,  led 
the  local  soldiery,  and  judged  criminals  and  lawsuits  among 
his  peasants,  or  summoned  persons  of  greater  consequence 
before  the  king's  court.  The  king  claimed  that  he  was 
the  fountain  of  all  justice,  that  keeping  the  peace  was  his 
special  prerogative,  and  that  he  had  the  right  to  see  that 
the  feudal  lords  did  justice  by  their  subvassals  and  tenants. 


FEUDAL  STATES  OF   EUROPE  269 

Having  been  anointed  king  by  the  Church,  he  also  claimed 
the  right  to  protect  it  everywhere  in  the  kingdom.  He 
depended  a  good  deal  on  the  bishops  and  monks,  made  gen- 
erous grants  to  the  Church,  and  also  secured  revenue  from 
it  even  outside  his  own  domains.  The  Church  for  its  part 
found  the  king  on  the  whole  a  better  friend  and  defender 
than  the  general  run  of  femdal  lords,  who  were  prone  to  be  a 
godless  set  of  plunderers,  i 

Situated  in  whole  or  Jh  part  within  the  boundaries  of 
modern  France  wer^j^oiSf  forty  feudal  states,  whose  lords 
were  practically  indepen^nt  sovereigns,  though  Feudal  states 
they  might  nominal|^^ji?*gnize  the  overlordship  °^  France 
of  king  or  emperor,  ^esnall  take  up  in  detail  about  a  third 
of  this  number,  which  w€re  ruled  by  hereditary  dynasties 
of  dukes  and  counts  and  which' were  of  the  most  importance. 
But  some  mere  viscounts  and  seigneurs  had  the  right  to 
declare  peace  and  war,  had  supreme  legislative  and  admin- 
istrative power,  judicial  power  in  the  last  resort,  the  right 
of  coinage,  and  claimed  authority  over  the  churches  within 
their  districts.  Then  there  were  ecclesiastical  states  where 
officials  of  the  Church  were  also  the  supreme  governing 
power,  although  these  states  never  became  so  great  and 
numerous  as  the  ecclesiastical  principalities  in  Germany. 

The  compact  possessions  of  the  Counts  of  Flanders  in- 
cluded portions  of  present  France,  but  more  of  Belgium, 
and  both  the  Flemish  with  their  German  patois 
and  the  Walloons  with  their  French  dialect. 
The  count  was  a  vassal  of  the  Capetian  king  for  some  of  his 
lands;  others  he  held  as  fiefs  from  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
peror. He  had  no  strong  vassals  of  his  own  to  weaken  him 
and  about  iioo  began  to  call  himself  "Monarch  of  the 
Flemings."  Before  this,  in  1030,  he  had  issued  a  decree  that 
all  within  his  territories  must  keep  the  peace  —  the  first 
such  order  extant  in  the  history  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
He  also  deprived  the  lords  of  feudal  castles  in  Flanders  of 
most  of  their  judicial  powers,  which  were  henceforth  exer- 
cised by  baillis  of  his  own  selection,  and  his  example  in  this 
reform  was  afterwards  widely  followed  in  western  Europe. 


270      THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Count  Baldwin  V  (1036-1067)  was  successful  in  war  against 
the  Holy  Roman  Emperor  whose  palace  he  burned  at  Nym- 
wegen;  he  was  guardian  of  young  King  Philip  I  of  France; 
he  helped  his  son-in-law,  William  of  Normandy,  to  conquer 
England. 

His  younger  son,  Robert,  led  the  adventurous  career 
characteristic  of  many  feudal  npbles.  Before  his  father's 
The  career  death  he  had  made  expeditions  to  Spain,  Nor- 
of  a  feudal  way,  and  the  Byzantine  Empire,  but  without 
succeeding  in  carving,  out  a  lordship  for  himself 
in  any  of  those  distant  lands.  Then  he  married  the  widow 
of  the  Count  of  Holland,  and,  during  the  minority  of  her 
sons,  defended  that  land  well  against  the  attacks  of  covetous 
barons  and  of  the  savage  Frisian  peasantry.  Meanwhile  his 
older  brother,  who  had  succeeded  their  father  as  Count  of 
Flanders  and  had  married  the  heiress  of  the  County  of  Hai- 
nault,  died,  leaving  Flanders  to  his  older  son  under  Robert's 
protection  and  Hainault  to  his  younger  son  under  the 
mother's  guardianship.  She  tried  to  seize  both  territories, 
thinking  Robert  too  fully  occupied  in  Holland  to  interfere, 
but  he  won  everything  away  from  her,  though  she  called  to 
her  aid  the  Capetian  king,  the  Duke  of  Normandy,  the 
Bishop  of  Liege,  and  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor,  Having 
settled  that  matter,  Robert  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Land  with  other  Flemish  nobles.  He  remained  two  years  in 
the  East  and  struck  up  a  friendship  with  the  Byzantine 
emperor.   A  few  years  later  he  died  peaceably  at  home. 

South  of  Flanders  and  east  of  Paris  lay  Champagne, 
where  during  the  tenth  century  a  considerable  power  had 
_,  been  built  up  by  the  union  of  the  counties  of 

Champagne  i  a  t  i  i       r        i  ... 

Iroyes  and  Meaux  and  by  further  acquisitions. 
When  the  holder  of  these  counties  died  childless,  Eudes  II 
(995-1037),  the  Count  of  Blois  and  Chartres,  places  to  the 
southwest  of  Paris,  outstripped  King  Robert  in  the  race  for 
Champagne.  He  further  augmented  his  territories  at  the 
expense  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rheims  and  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  but  a  coalition  of  King  Robert  and  Emperor 
Henry  II  forced  him  to  restore  his  conquests.  But  he  was  a 


LongitU'le       We 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  271 

candidate  for  the  Italian  crown  in  1024  in  opposition  to 
Conrad  II  of  Germany,  and  for  that  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Aries  in  1032.  Five  years  later  he  was  slain  in  an  attempt  to 
capture  Aachen  while  Conrad  was  absent  in  Italy.  In  1152 
Blois  anci  Chartres  passed  to  a  younger  son  and  Champagne 
again  became  a  distinct  state  by  itself.  The  Counts  of 
Champagne  did  not  develop  a  strong  centralized  govern- 
ment, perhaps  owing  to  a  number  of  minorities  and  of 
regencies  by  widows.  But  they  have  left  us  a  valuable 
specimen  of  a  feudal  register.  This  book,  covering  the  fifty 
years  from  11 72  to  1222,  illustrates  admirably  the  Intricate 
and  complicated  personal  relationships  of  feudalism.  It 
contains  lists  of  all  their  vassals,  two  thousand  and  seven- 
teen in  number  in  1172,  and  states  the  services  owed  by 
each.  Of  them  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  were  also  vas- 
sals of  some  eighty-five  other  lords,  while  the  Count  of 
Champagne  himself  held  the  twenty-six  castellanies  which 
composed  his  state  from  ten  different  suzerains ;  namely,  the 
Holy  Roman  Emperor,  the  King  of  France,  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  two  archbishops,  four  bishops,  and  an  abbot. 

South  of  Champagne  was  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  ruled 
by  a  collateral  line  of  the  Capetian  family.   The  dukes  had 
few  domain  lands  of  their  own  and  little  author-  Burgundy 
ity  over  the  local  nobility,  while  the  Burgundian  Rhone^ 
bishops  held  their  fiefs  directly  from  the  king.  Valley 
and  the  great  abbots  claimed  to  be  answerable  only  to  the 
pope.  After  the  Kingdom  of  Aries  came  to  an  end  in  1032, 
the  regions  from  the  Rhone  to  the  Alps  were  nominally 
parts  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  but  really  broke  up  into  a 
number  of  independent  lordships,  —  among  them,  Franche 
Comte  or  the  Free  County  of  Burgundy,  located  east  of  the 
duchy.  Savoy,  Dauphine,  and  Provence. 

The  regions  south  of  the  Loire  differed  from  northern 
France  in  language,  geography,  race,  and  the  entire  life  and 
spirit  of  the  people.   In  literature,  art,  and  trade  Southern 
they  were  more  closely  connected  with  the  Med-  ^''^"'^^ 
iterranean,  with  Constantinople,  and  with  Italy  and  Spain. 
Their  architecture  shows  Byzantine  influence;  their  Ian- 


272        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

guage,  the  Provengal,  was  more  like  Latin  than  French  in 
its  sounds  and  more  closely  related  to  the  Catalan  of 
northern  Spain.  These  southern  districts  retained  more 
Roman  influence,  especrally  more  Roman  law;  more  town 
life  had  survived,  and  social  classes  were  less  sharply  dis- 
tinguished than  in  the  north.  The  population  was  more 
Gallo-Roman  and  more  of  the  Mediterranean  racial  type. 
The  Frankish  kings  had  seldom  visited  this  region  except 
on  warlike  expeditions  and  plundering  raids.  Much  of  the 
country  was  mountainous  highland  intersected  by  ravines 
and  water  torrents,  a  topography  more  suited  to  the  exist- 
ence of  many  small  lordships  than  to  unified  government 
and  large  states. 

The  south,  however,  divided  into  three  chief  regions: 
the  County  of  Toulouse  or  Languedoc,  a  Mediterranean 
Toulouse  or  land  Stretching  from  the  Rhone  to  the  Pyrenees 
Languedoc,  and  shut  off  from  the  north  by  the  mountain 
and  '  barrier  of  the  massif  central,  and  the  most  south- 
Aquitaine  ^j-j^  ^^  spirit  of  all ;  the  Duchy  of  Gascony ,  extend- 
ing from  the  Pyrenees  north  to  the  river  Garonne;  and  the 
Duchy  of  Aquitaine,  reaching  from  the  central  plateau  to 
the  Bay  of  Biscay.  The  Counts  of  Toulouse  first  gave  them- 
selves the  title,  "Marquis  of  Gothia"  and  later  "Duke  of 
Narbonne,"  but  we  know  almost  nothing  of  their  history  in 
the  eleventh  century.  During  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth 
century  they  displayed  considerable  political  ability  and 
activity,  and  were  influential  in  Spain  as  arbitrators  be- 
tween rival  kings  there.  Gascony  got  its  name  from  the 
Vascones,  or  modern  Basques,  who  invaded  from  Spain  in 
the  sixth  century,  although  their  peculiar  language  and 
blood  have  never  prevailed  except  in  a  very  limited  section 
of  Gascony.  Duke  William  VIII  of  Aquitaine  (1058-1086) 
conquered  Gascony  and  added  it  to  his  duchy.  Aquitaine 
was  the  largest  feudal  ^ate  in  France,  and  had  the  greatest 
geographical  and  linguistic  diversity  in  its  different  parts 
such  as  Poitou,  P^rigord,  Limousin,  and  Auvergne;  and  the 
duke  found  it  hard  to  control  his  many  powerful  vassals. 
The  ducal  coronation  ceremony  was  almost  royal  in  its 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  273 

character,  and  a  ruler  like  William  V  (990-1029)  had  felt 
himself  quite  the  equal  of  his  Capetian  contemporary  and 
had  been  so  treated  by  the  other  monarchs  of  his  time. 

Since  the  barons  both  of  Languedoc  and  Gascony  fre- 
quently intermarried  and  fought  with  those  of  Aragon, 
Catalonia,  and  Navarre,  since  the  Archbishop  of  Christian 
Narbonne  had  territory  on  both  sides  of  the  fiet"of^north- 
Pyrenees,  and  since  troubadours  sang  in  both  ern  Spain 
Provencal  and  Catalan,  we  may  well  interrupt  for  a  mo- 
ment our  survey  of  the  feudal  states  of  France  to  note  the 
similar  divisions  in  northern  Spain  as  they  were  in  the  tenth 
century,  leaving  their  subsequent  expansion  at  the  expense 
of  the  Mohammedans  in  Spain  for  a  later  chapter.  The 
County  of  Barcelona  represented  the  remains  of  Charle- 
magne's Spanish  March,  and  included  Catalonia  and  Rous- 
sillon,  a  little  province  destined  later  to  figure  often  in 
treaties  of  peace  between  French  and  Spanish  monarchs. 
Next,  going  west,  came  the  tiny  Kingdoms  of  Aragon  and 
of  Navarre.  The  latter,  overlapping  the  Pyrenees  like  a 
pair  of  saddle-bags,  half  French  and  half  Spanish,  was 
founded  by  a  Gascon  count  with  the  aid  of  the  King  of  the 
Asturias  in  northwest  Spain,  to  whom  he  paid  homage. 
Between  Navarre  and  Aragon  and  Barcelona  were  inter- 
mingled several  small  semi-independent  Moorish  states. 
The  Christians  of  Spain  who  escaped  Mohammedan  con- 
quest were  at  first  confined  to  the  Asturias  in  the  ex- 
treme north,  with  their  capital  at  Oviedo.  Alfonso  II 
(791-842)  added  Galicia.  Then  Leon,  a  devastated  plain, 
which  served  for  a  time  as  a  march  between  Christians  and 
Moslems,  was  repeopled  and  henceforth  gave  its  name  to 
the  kingdom.  Presently  a  new  march  against  the  Moors 
was  established  in  Castile. 

Returning  from  Spain  to  the  remaining  feudal   states 
of  France  north  of  the  Loire,  we  may  first  note  in  the  ex- 
treme west  the  peninsula  of  Brittany,  forming  Duchy  of 
a  separate  geographical  unit  and  distinct  in  its  Bnttany 
history  from  the  rest  of  the  Prankish  territory.    Here  the 
influence  of  the  Celtic  clan  was  still  felt.   From  952  to  1066 


274        THE   HISTORY   OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

was  a  period  of  anarchy  and  endless  war,  during  whi-ch 
various  ferocious  barons  contended,  with  many  crimes  and 
atrocities,  for  the  ducal  or  regal  title.  From  1066  to  1 148 
a  line  of  dukes  managed  to  maintain  themselves,  but  this 
required  all  their  energies  and  left  them  no  leisure  to  de- 
velop an  organized  government.  They  had  to  recognize  the 
neighboring  Dukes  of  Normandy  as  their  feudal  superiors, 
and  Louis  VI,  King  of  France,  surrendered  to  Henry  I,  King 
of  England  and  Duke  of  Normandy,  the  right  to  receive 
homage  directly  from  the  Duke  of  Brittany. 

Between  Brittany  and  Paris  lay  the  possessions  of  the 
Counts  of  Anjou,  with  their  capital  at  Angers  on  the  Loire. 
The  Counts  Fulk  the  Black  (Foulques  Nerra),  the  founder 
of  Anjou  Qf  |-}^g  dynasty  and  a  hero  of  many  legends,  was 
a  pitiless  slaughterer  of  his  foes  on  the  battlefield,  treacher- 
ous to  his  enemies,  a  great  builder  of  churches  and  feudal 
keeps.  He  burned  monasteries  and  then  atoned  for  his  sin 
by  sensational  public  penances.  The  story  also  goes  that  he 
made  his  rebellious  son,  conquered  after  four  terrible  years 
of  war,  do  penance  by  traveling  several  miles  with  a  saddle 
on  his  back  and  then  kneeling  before  his  father,  who  placed 
his  foot  on  his  head  and  asked  him  if  he  was  broken  in  yet. 
Fulk  also  made  conquests  at  the  expense  of  his  neighbors 
of  Blois  and  Brittany.  But  there  was  one  person  whom  he 
could  not  conquer,  the  martyr,  St.  Florent.  When  Fulk 
burned  the  monastery  of  St.  Florent  and  started  to  remove 
the  precious  relics  of  the  martyr  to  grace  his  capital  at 
Angers,  the  rowers  could  not  move  their  boat  on  the  Loire. 
The  furious  Fulk  abused  the  dead  saint  as  "an  ungodly 
hayseed  to  prefer  to  stay  at  Saumur  and  not  to  allow  him- 
self to  be  conveyed  to  the  great  city  of  Angers."  But  his 
wrath  was  unavailing;  at  Saumur  the  body  of  St.  Florent 
remained.  Fulk's  son,  Geoffrey  Martel  (1040-1060),  was 
once  as  saucy  to  the  pope  as  his  father  had  been  to  the 
saint,  yet  he  endowed  many  churches  and  abbeys.  He  was 
no  less  brave  a  fighter  and  more  versed  in  military  science 
and  statesmanship  than  his  father.  During  the  remainder 
of  that  century  Anjou  was  weakened  by  misrule  and  civil 


FEUDAL  STATES  OF   EUROPE  275 

war,  but  in  the  first  half  of  the  next  century  two  red-headed 
counts,  Fulk  V  and  Geoffrey  the  Fair,  created  a  strong  state. 
Geoffrey  was  also  a  noted  patron  of  learning  and  literature. 

Our  circuit  of  feudal  France  brings  us  back  to  Normandy, 
lying  along  the  seacoast  and  the  river  Seine  between  Brit- 
tany and  Flanders.  Here  the  descendants  of  ^^^^.j^^^j^j 
Rollo  the  Northman  —  three  of  the  first  six 
dukes  were  the  sons  of  concubines  —  had  built  up  the 
strongest  and  best-organized  state  in  France  at  this  time. 
The  duke  kept  better  order  in  his  duchy  than  the  king 
did  on  his  domains.  With  the  exception  of  the  Count  of 
Flanders  he  was  the  only  feudal  lord  who  had  direct  control 
over  his  subvassals,  who  placed  garrisons  in  their  castles, 
and  who  insisted  that  certain  classes  of  cases  even  between 
subvassals  should  be  tried  in  his  court.  He  kept  the  bishop- 
rics and  counties  of  Normandy  in  the  hands  of  members  of 
his  own  family.  From  1035  to  1087  the  Duke  of  Normandy 
was  William,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Robert  the  Devil.  In 
1066  he  crossed  with  an  army  to  England  and  conquered 
that  kingdom  and  brought  it  thereby  into  closer  relations 
with  Continental  feudalism,  Church,  and  culture. 

After  the  death  in  975  of  Edgar  the  Peaceful,  a  great- 
grandson  of  Alfred  the  Great,  the  Anglo-Saxon  monarchy 
began  to  decline  in  strength.  The  Danes  had  Transition 
begun  again  to  attack  England  and  for  a  time  rule  in"^ 
were  paid  tribute  or  "Danegeld."  Finally,  in  England 
1013,  Swein,  King  of  Denmark,  conquered  England  and  his 
son  Cnut  reigned  there  from  1016  to  1035.  Since  he  also 
conquered  Norway,  he  had  an  empire  about  the  North  Sea 
that  made  him  perhaps  the  most  powerful  potentate  of 
his  time.  After  the  disorderly  reigns  of  Cnut's  two  sons, 
Edward  the  Confessor,  so  called  for  his  religiousness,  came 
to  the  throne  in  1042.  He  had  been  a  refugee  in  Normandy, 
and  during  his  reign  many  Normans  came  to  England  and 
were  influential  at  his  court.  Duke  William  himself  paid 
him  a  visit,  and  afterwards  asserted  that  Edward  had 
promised  to  make  him  his  successor.  William  had  the  lust 
for  conquest  and  domination  in  his  blood  and  had  already 


276        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

absorbed  Maine,  defeated  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  and 
wrenched  fiefs  away  from  the  Capetians.  But  when  Edward 
died  childless,  the  Witan  chose  Harold,  son  of  God  wine,  the 
leader  of  the  anti-Norman  party  in  Edward's  reign.  Wil- 
liam thereupon  determined  to  invade  England.  The  pope 
approved  of  his  expedition  because  Harold's  party  had 
ousted  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  a  Norman,  and  re- 
placed him  by  an  Englishman  without  papal  permission. 
William's  vassals  were  as  keen  to  conquer  more  territory  as 
he  was,  and  various  feudal  nobles  from  outside  Normandy 
were  allured  by  the  prospect  of  new  fiefs  and  plunder  to 
join  his  forces.  He  also  stirred  up  Tostig,  an  unworthy 
brother  of  Harold,  who  was  in  exile  and  who  was  aided 
by  Harold  Hardrada  of  Norway  and  by  contingents  from 
the  Norse  colonies  in  Ireland,  the  Orkneys,  and  Shetlands, 
and  from  the  King  of  Scotland.  Tostig  and  Hardrada  in- 
vaded northern  England  and  defeated  the  Earls  of  North- 
umbria  and  Mercia,  but  Harold  hurried  north  to  the  res- 
cue and  defeated  and  killed  both  Tostig  and  Hardrada  in 
the  battle  of  Stamford  Bridge.  But  meanwhile  William's 
army  had  been  enabled  to  land  unopposed  on  the  south 
coast.  Harold  hurried  south  to  meet  him,  but  now  he  in  his 
turn  was  defeated  and  slain  at  the  battle  of  Hastings  or 
Senlac.  William  soon  took  London  and  forced  the  Witan  to 
elect  him  king,  and  by  1071  he  had  crushed  all  rebellion. 

Before  the  Norman  conquest  the  Anglo-Saxon  monarchy 
had  shown  a  tendency  to  fall  apart  into  four  or  five  great 
English  earldoms,    which,   as   the   names   Northumbria 

feudalism  ^j^^j  Mercia  mentioned  above  show,  followed  the 
lines  of  the  former  independent  kingdoms.  The  earls  re- 
placed the  former  ealdormen  in  the  various  shires.  Besides 
this  tendency  in  the  direction  of  feudal  states,  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  kings  had  come  to  rely  chiefly  in  their  govern- 
ment and  wars  upon  a  nobility  of  service  called  "thegns." 
It  was  with  these  personal  followers  that  they  filled  up  the 
Witan  to  secure  a  subservient  majority,  and  to  them  they 
granted  or  "booked"  lands.  Immunities,  too,  had  been 
granted,  and  some  private  individuals  had  military  retain- 


FEUDAL  STATES  OF  EUROPE  277 

ers  or  held  courts  of  justice.  Also  both  serfdom  and  selgneu- 
rial  exploitation  were  familiar  before  the  Norman  conquest. 
William  further  introduced  feudalism  by  depriving  most  of 
the  English  who  had  resisted  him  of  their  estates  and  giving 
these  out  as  fiefs  to  his  Continental  followers.  He  wished, 
however,  to  keep  the  government  in  his  own  hands  as  in 
Normandy;  so  he  increased  the  number  of  earls  and  re- 
duced their  power,  transferring  some  of  their  functions 
to  the  sheriffs  representing  him  in  each  shire.  And  toward 
the  close  of  his  reign  he  required  all  his  subvassals  to  take 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  himself. 

William  showed  that  he  was  a  businesslike  ruler  by  his 
Domesday  Book,  a  record  of  the  landed  property  of  England, 
its  tenants,  serfs,  animals,  agricultural  equip-  The  Anglo- 
ment,  fish-ponds,  and  other  sources  of  income,  feudal 
and  what  was  owing  from  it  to  the  king.  William  monarchy 
and  his  two  immediate  successors  greatly  strengthened  the 
central  government  of  England,  but,  like  Cnut,  they  wisely 
continued  the  old  local  organization  and  the  old  English 
customs  and  laws.  They  were  arbitrary  rulers  who  pun- 
ished wrongdoers  severely  and  squeezed  more  money  out  of 
the  land  than  it  had  been  wont  to  pay  in  the  easy-going, 
Anglo-Saxon  days.  Yet  their  rule,  though  absolute  and 
even  tyrannical,  was  feudal  in  form.  An  army  was  raised 
from  their  vassals  by  knight  service.  William  built  rec- 
tangular stone  "towers"  or  castles  all  over  the  land  to  hold 
it  in  truly  feudal  style.  There  were  the  same  household 
officials  and  the  same  feudal  curia  regis  as  the  Capetians 
governed  by.  Except  that  the  kings  continued  to  levy  the 
Danegeld,  their  financial  oppression  was  exercised  largely 
by  stretching  their  rights  to  feudal  dues,  by  abusing  their 
powers  of  wardship  and  marriage,  and  by  demanding  exces- 
sive fines  and  fees  in  their  feudal  court  of  justice.  They  were 
accustomed  to  feudal  methods  in  Normandy  and  continued 
to  employ  them  in  England,  although  they  gladly  retained 
any  Anglo-Saxon  custom  that  was  useful  to  them,  just  as  in 
Normandy  they  had  preserved  some  Carolingian  institu- 
tions. 


278        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  death  of  Henry  I  in  1 135  raised  the  question  whether 
England  and  Normandy  should  go  to  his  daughter  Matilda 
The  Plan-  or  to  his  nephew  Stephen,  and  civil  war  rent 
seSonsor  England  for  nearly  twenty  years  over  this  dis- 
Henry  II  puted  succcssion.  The  two  rivals  imported  paid 
soldiers  from  the  Continent  to  fight  their  battles,  and  while 
these  devastated  the  land,  the  feudal  nobles  built  castles 
and  lorded  it  over  their  localities  as  they  pleased.  Matilda, 
a  rather  haughty  and  disagreeable  lady,  had  married  the 
able  Count  of  Anjou  of  the  Plantagenet  house,  Geoffrey  the 
Fair  (1129-1151),  who  was  fifteen  years  her  junior.  After 
ten  years  of  fighting  he  gained  Normandy  in  11 44;  ten  years 
later  their  son,  Henry  Plantagenet,  on  the  death  of  Stephen, 
became  Henry  II  of  England.  When  the  Capetian  king, 
Louis  VII,  had  committed  the  political  error  of  divorcing 
for  personal  reasons  his  wife,  the  imperious  and  capricious 
and  frivolous  Eleanor,  heiress  of  the  great  Duchy  of  Aqui- 
taine  with  its  attendant  fiefs  of  Poitou  and  Gascony,  young 
Henry  had  married  her  in  I152.  He  was  only  twenty-one 
when  he  became  King  of  England  in  11 54.  This  made  him 
ruler  in  his  own  and  in  his  wife's  name  of  territories  from 
Scotland  to  the  Pyrenees  —  he  also  later  occupied  a  small 
portion  of  Ireland  —  and  lord  of  over  half  the  fiefs  of  Gaul. 
He  did  not,  however,  thereby  become  the  monarch  of  a  vast 
empire;  instead,  he  was  the  lord  of  a  number  of  distinct 
feudal  states,  which  were  out  of  sympathy  with  one  another 
and  most  of  which  were  only  too  ready  to  rebel  against  their 
lord,  even  if  he  had  been  a  native  of  their  own  locality  in- 
stead of  a  foreign  intruder,  such  as  Henry  seemed  to  them. 
Henry,  however,  was  a  ruler  of  great  energy  and  ability 
who  played  an  important  part  in  English  history,  as  we  shall 
see  later. 

With  the  disruption  of  Charlemagne's  empire  and  the 

incoming  of  the  feudal  period  which  we  have  just  been 

^     ,  , ,         describing,  almost  all  the  written  law  of    the 
Feudal  law  .  •     1  .         ^     r  o  1 

previous  period  went  out  of   use.     Several  new 

sources  of  law  now  existed;  one  was  the  feudal  court  for 

vassals  and  another  was  the  manorial  court  for  peasants. 


FEUDAL  STATES   OF   EUROPE  279 

Sometimes  there  were  intermediate  courts  between  these 
two.  In  Germany,  besides  Lehnrecht,  regulating  the  rela- 
tions of  fief-holders  to  their  lords,  and  Hojrecht  or  manorial 
law,  there  was  Dienstrecht  regulating  the  status  of  the  minis- 
teriales.  There  were  vast  numbers  of  feudal  and  manorial 
courts  and  consequently  there  was  great  variety  in  the 
laws  produced  by  them,  especially  since  their  attendants 
were  not  trained  lawyers,  but  simple  warriors  or  peasants  and 
rough  lords,  who  reached  a  decision  as  best  they  could. 
Royal  law  as  yet  did  not  have  a  very  wide  influence  and  was 
itself  largely  feudal  in  character.  By  the  thirteenth  century 
some  lawyers  endeavored  to  reduce  feudalism  and  its  mani- 
fold customs  and  local  diversities  to  a  system.  The  business 
of  the  average  feudal  court  was  in  the  main  limited  to  ques- 
tions of  personal  status  and  personal  injuries,  crimes  of  vio- 
lence, rights  over  land  or  other  fiefs,  and  the  feudal  bond. 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Feudal  States. 

Seignobos,  Feudal  Regime,  translated  by  Dow,  pp.  65-68. 

Feudal  States  of  France,   {For  those  who  can  read  French.) 
Lavisse,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  ll,  pp.  39-77,  283-310. 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire  at  its  Height. 
Emerton,  Medieval  Europe,  pp.  174-94. 

Italy,  867-962. 
Sedgwick,  A  Short  History  of  Italy,  pp.  67-78. 

For  consecutive  chronological  narrative  of  one  reign  after  another, 
see,  in  the  case  of  the  Holy  Roman  Emperors,  Henderson,  History  of 
Germany  in  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  117  et  seq.;  for  the  Capetians,  Kitchin, 
History  of  France,  vol.  i,  book  in. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH 

Charlemagne  had  ruled  Church  as  well  as  State,  but  the 
popes  rather  turned  the  tables  upon  Louis  the  Pious  and 
The  Papacy  Other  later  Carolingians.  While  local  magnates 
after  Charle-  increased  their  power  at  the  expense  of  the 
'"^^"^  central  government,   the  Church  gained   inde- 

pendence too.  The  Church,  however,  also  ran  the  risk  of 
dismemberment  and  local  isolation.  Bishops  were  revolting 
from  the  control  of  their  archbishops  just  as  dukes  and 
counts  were  throwing  off  the  royal  yoke.  During  the  first 
half  of  the  tenth  century  the  Papacy  fell  into  the  hands  of 
local  factions  at  Rome,  and  exerted  little  or  no  influence 
outside  Italy.  Once  a  boy  of  sixteen  was  made  pope  and 
dishonored  the  ofiftce  by  his  wild  life  and  neglect  of  duty. 
When  Otto  became  emperor  he  found  it  necessary  to  inter- 
vene and  put  candidates  of  his  own  in  the  papal  chair.  He 
also  issued  a  decree  that  henceforth  a  pope  should  not  be 
consecrated  until  he  had  taken  an  oath  of  fealty  to  the 
emperor.  None  the  less  the  German  churches  recognized 
the  pope's  spiritual  supremacy,  asking  his  consent  for  the 
creation  of  new  bishops,  his  confirmation  for  ecclesiastical 
charters,  and  welcoming  the  presence  of  his  legate  at  their 
councils. 

About  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  were  composed  the 
False  Decretals,  purporting  to  have  been  collected  from  the 
The  False  documents  of  early  popes.  These  forgeries  were 
Decretals  probably  not  made  at  Rome,  like  the  Donation 
of  Constantine,  but  at  Le  Mans  in  France,  with  the  object  of 
freeing  bishops  from  the  control  of  their  archbishops  by 
magnifying  the  authority  of  the  Papacy,  which  the  bishops 
seem  to  have  hoped  would  not  press  upon  them  so  much. 
These  Pseudo-Isidorian  decretals,   with  their  theories    of 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       281 

papal   absolutism,  were  generally  accepted  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 

The  chief  allies  of  the  Papacy,  however,  were  not  dis- 
contented bishops  seeking  their  own  ends,  but  the  monks. 
Bishops  had  many  worldly  concerns;  some  were  Relations  of 
rulers  of  small  states  themselves,  others  were  bishops  and 

,  '  .  monks  to 

advisers  and  helpers  of  kmgs.  Their  selection  state  and 
was  usually  influenced  by  the  secular  rulers,  and  ^P^^y 
as  a  result  they  were  often  ambitious  nobles  or  relatives  of 
king  or  feudal  lord.  They  sometimes,  therefore,  did  not  care 
greatly  for  the  religious  side  of  their  office,  and  they  almost 
always  sympathized  with  the  locality  or  nationality  to  which 
they  belonged.  Monks  had  less  interest  in  worldly  things 
and  were  apt  to  be  devoted  to  the  Papacy,  to  which  they 
looked  for  special  favors  and  for  freedom  from  episcopal  or 
other  local  control.  Feudal  nobles,  however,  looked  covet- 
ously upon  the  richly  endowed  monasteries  and  often  sought 
the  office  of  abbot  for  the  sake  of  the  lands. 

About  910  the  Abbey  of  Cluny  had  been  founded  in  the 
Duchy  of  Burgundy  with  complete  immunity  from  feudal 
or  ecclesiastical  control  except  that  of  the  pope,  ^j^^  q^^^ 
It  soon  acquired  great  fame  by  its  revival  of  gregation 
monastic  ideals.  Its  monks  really  lived  up  to 
their  rule  and  were  models  of  ascetic  devotion.  They  were 
well  educated,  engaging  in  intellectual  rather  than  manual 
labor,  although  they  spent  a  few  hours  shelling, beans  and 
digging  weeds  in  order  to  make  themselves  feel  properly 
humble.  They  conducted  excellent  schools,  were  very 
hospitable,  and  their  charity  to  the  poor  won  them  both 
great  popularity  and  many  donations.  Cluny  was  fortunate 
during  the  first  two  centuries  of  its  existence  in  a  remarkable 
succession  of  abbots,  some  of  whom  had  very  long  terms  of 
office.  Each  one  practically  chose  his  own  successor  and 
trained  him  for  his  task.  Finally  it  became  the  custom  that 
the  Grand  Prior  should  always  succeed  to  the  abbotship. 
Cluny  became  so  celebrated  that  there  was  not  room  in  one 
monastery  for  all  who  wished  to  join.  So  the  "Congrega- 
tion of  Cluny ' '  was  formed.  More  monasteries  were  founded 


282        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

in  other  places,  but  instead  of  each  being  an  independent 
community  under  its  own  abbot,  as  had  hitherto  been  the 
case  with  Benedictine  monasteries,  all  were  subordinated 
to  the  abbot  of  the  mother  monastery  at  Cluny,  who 
appointed  a  prior  for  each  instead  of  allowing  the  local 
monks  to  elect  their  head.  He  also  visited  these  priories  to 
see  that  their  discipline  conformed  to  Cluniac  standards, 
and  the  priors  met  in  general  assemblies  under  his  presi- 
dency. The  popes  showered  Cluny  with  favors;  Christians 
deluged  it  with  gifts  and  legacies;  by  1150  there  were  over 
three  hundred  priories. 

A  reform  movement  now  began  in  the  Church  at  large, 
which  was  perhaps  due  in  large  measure  to  the  influence 
Church  of  Cluny,  whose  branches  were  scattered  over 

the°eKv?nth  Catholic  Europe  and  whose  monks  were  often 
century  called  to  high  posts  in  the  Church.    Moreover, 

the  Cluniac  monasteries  to  some  extent  reformed  the  parish 
priesthood  by  the  following  method.  Usually  the  lord  of 
the  manor  or  some  other  person  or  institution  that  had  en- 
dowed the  local  parish  church  with  most  of  its  property  pos- 
sessed the  right  to  nominate  to  the  bishop  a  candidate  for 
the  ofifice  of  parish  priest.  In  other  words,  most  parishes 
had  lay  "patrons"  who  had  the  right  of  "presentation"  to 
the  ecclesiastical  "living."  Cluny  now  made  it  an  especial 
object  to  acquire  among  its  extensive  properties  as  many 
"advowsons"  or  rights  of  patronage  of  this  sort  as  possible 
in  order  to  be  able  to  fill  the  priesthood  with  holier  men. 
It  was  now  felt  that  the  Church  as  a  whole  should  be  freed 
from  the  control  of  kings  and  feudal  lords  as  Cluny  had  been, 
and  more  than  that,  that  the  spiritual  power  should  always 
take  precedence  over  the  temporal  power  and  that  kings 
and  lords  should  be  subject  to  the  correction  of  the  clergy 
and  the  pope.  To  insure  further  that  the  clergy  should  not 
become  worldly,  it  was  felt  that  the  rules  against  the  mar- 
riage of  the  clergy  must  be  strictly  enforced,  as  is  the  case 
to-day  in  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood. 

In  the  West  since  the  later  Roman  Empire  the  clergy 
above  the  rank  of  subdeacon  had  been  forbidden  to  lead 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       283 

married  lives, ^  but  the  rule  was  often  poorly  observed,  and 
Gregory  the  Great  had  to  instruct  the  bishops  Celibacy  of 
of  Gaul  concerning  it  in  his  day.  In  the  tenth  *^^  clergy 
and  eleventh  centuries  there  were  many  married  clergy  in 
England,  in  northern  Italy,  in  Germany,  and  elsewhere. 
Those  who  believed  in  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  not  only 
regarded  such  priests  as  leading  impure  and  sinful  lives,  but 
had  another  cogent  reason  for  prohibiting  clerical  marriage. 
Married  priests  were  too  liable  to  transmit  to  their  sons 
their  ecclesiastical  offices  and  the  church  property  under 
their  care.  If  the  Church  was  to  remain  a  career  open  to 
every  one,  an  institution  where  ability  might  rise  to  high 
position  regardless  of  social  rank,  and  if  the  clergy  were  not 
to  become  a  hereditary  caste,  it  was  felt  that  they  must 
remain  single. 

Feudalism  was  threatening  to  overwhelm  the  Church  as 
it  had  overwhelmed  almost  every  other  institution  and 
phase  of  society.  The  Church  was  the  great-  Danger  of 
est  landholder  in  existence;  in  the  Carolingian  becoming 
period  one  third  of  all  Gaul  belonged  to  the  feudalized 
Church,  a  fact  that  would  have  caused  Julius  Caesar  to  rub 
his  eyes  in  amazement  had  he  awaked  from  the  grave  then. 
Most  church  lands  were  now  in  the  form  of  fiefs  which  the 
clergy  either  held  as  vassals  or  had  granted  out  as  lords  to 
others.  Therefore,  there  was  danger  that  the  clergy  would 
become  mere  feudal  nobles  and  forget  their  religious  duties, 
or  that  greedy  feudal  nobles  who  cared  nothing  for  religion 
would  become  bishops  and  abbots  to  get  the  use  of  the 
church  lands.  If  bishops  and  abbots  were  worldly  self- 
seekers,  there  was  little  hope  that  the  monks  and  priests 
under  their  surveillance  would  be  what  they  should. 

This  entrance  of  unworthy  men  into  church  positions, 
this  climbing  of  wolves  into  the  sheep-fold,  seemed  to 
thoughtful  persons  of  that  age  to  be  effected  in  two  ways, 
by  simony  and  by  lay  investiture.    Simony  was  an  abuse 

^  In  the  East,  on  the  other  hand,  a  church  council  at  Constantinople,  in 
688-694,  declared  that  those  who  were  already  married  before  taking  higher 
orders  need  not  separate  from  their  wives  unless  they  became  bishops,  but  that 
one  must  not  marry  after  one  had  been  ordained  a  subdeacon. 


284        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  long  standing.  The  term  is  derived  from  the  name  of 
Simon  the  magician  who  tried  to  buy  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  the  apostles.  It  meant 
in  particular  the  purchase  and  sale  of  church  offices,  and 
might  more  broadly  refer  to  the  acquisition  of  such  offices 
by  unworthy  persons  or  by  any  improper  methods,  and  to 
almost  any  corruption  or  "graft"  in  the  Church.  Purchas- 
ing an  office  was  nevertheless  quite  a  usual  occurrence  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  outside  the  Church  was  often  not 
regarded  as  illegal,  while  even  within  the  Church  we  have 
instances  of  good  men  buying  offices  to  keep  bad  men  from 
getting  them.  But  this  last  fact  only  illustrates  how  much 
corruption  there  must  have  been  in  the  Church. 

Lay  investiture  was  the  power  exercised  by  kings  and 
feudal  lords  of  investing  with  his  office  and  fiefs  the  new 
Lay  incumbent  of  a  bishopric  or  abbey.    By   this 

investiture  method  the  rulers  kept  somewhat  under  their 
control  the  clergy  and  church  property  within  their  borders. 
A  large  part  of  the  church  lands  had  been  royal  or  ducal 
grants,  and  kings  were  supposed  to  be  protectors  and  de- 
fenders of  the  Church;  in  return  they  claimed  that  all  the 
higher  clergy  within  their  territories  were  their  vassals.  The 
new  bishop  or  abbot  must  do  homage  to  his  king  or  feudal 
lord  and  receive  from  him,  not  only  the  church  lands  as  a 
fief,  but  also  the  symbols  of  his  religious  functions,  the  ring 
and  the  staff,  with  the  words,  '' Accipe  ecclesiam"  —  "Take 
this  church."  The  lay  lords  were  also  accustomed  to  seize 
for  their  own  use  the  goods  and  lands  of  bishoprics  and 
monasteries  during  the  vacancies  between  the  death  of  one 
incumbent  and  the  selection  of  his  successor.  The  theory 
of  the  Church,  on  the  other  hand,  was  that  monks  should 
elect  their  abbot;  and  the  clergy  and  people  of  the  diocese, 
their  bishop;  and  that  the  feudal  lord  should  unquestion- 
ingly  accept  such  choices.  In  practice,  however,  the  latter 
not  only  did  the  investing,  but  usually  let  it  be  known  be- 
forehand whom  he  wished  chosen,  and  might  refuse  to 
invest  any  one  else  with  the  office  and  the  property.  This 
power  the  Church  wished  to  take  away  from  the  feudal  lords 


GROWTH   OF   THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       285 

and  political  rulers;  and  it  was  repulsive  to  ecclesiastical 
sensibilities  that  the  blood-stained  hands  of  some  lord,  who 
was  a  terror  to  all  his  peasants  and  neighbors,  and  who  had 
perhaps  ill-treated  and  divorced  several  wives,  should  be- 
stow the  emblems  of  spiritual  functions  upon  a  successor  of 
the  blessed  apostles,  or  upon  the  head  of  a  community 
vowed  to  perpetual  chastity. 

Yet  for  a  time  the  Holy  Roman  Emperors  assisted  in  the 
reform  of  the  Church.  Henry  H,  called  the  Saint,  did  much 
to  improve  the  monasteries  and  cooperated  on  The  emper- 
several  occasions  with  the  pope,  who  in  1018  held  °hurch  '" 
a  council  at  Pavia  which  forbade  the  marriage  reform 
of  the  clergy.  The  next  emperor,  Conrad  H,  was  absorbed 
in  politics  and  gave  the  Church  little  thought.  Meanwhile 
the  Papacy  fell  again  under  the  control  of  a  powerful  Ro- 
man family,  and  Henry  HI  (1039-1056)  found  it  in  much 
the  same  predicament  as  in  the  time  of  Otto  the  Great. 
Again  a  mere  youth  had  been  made  pope,  one  chronicler 
says  at  the  age  of  twelve;  and  his  pontificate,  according  to 
the  gossip  of  the  time,  was  a  worse  orgy  than  that  of  any  of 
the  spoiled  boys  among  the  Roman  emperors.  Presently 
there  were  three  claimants  to  the  Papacy.  At  this  point 
Henry  HI  interfered,  deposed  all  three  popes,  and  nomi- 
nated a  good  German  bishop  to  the  Papacy.  Henry  was  a 
pious  ruler,  earnestly  desirous  of  church  reform,  and  held 
a  synod  at  Mainz,  at  which  the  pope  was  present,  and 
which  condemned  simony. 

Through  the  remainder  of  his  reign  Henry  HI  saw  to  it 
that  fit  men  occupied  the  papal  see.   But  when  he  died  his 
son  was  but  a  child,  and  was  still  only  fifteen  Growth  of 
when  he  was  declared  of  age  in  1065.    In  the  pendence^' 
meantime,  in  10=^9,  Pope  Nicholas  II  had  decreed  dunng  the 

"-'^'         ^  minority  of 

that  henceforth  the  pope  should  be  elected  by  Henry  IV 
the  cardinals,  certain  clergy  connected  with  the  churches  in 
Rome.  This  is  essentially  the  method  of  election  followed 
to-day,  and,  although  many  of  the  cardinals  reside  in  other 
countries,  they  still  hold  nominal  positions  in  the  city 
churches  of  Rome.   This  took  the  election  of  the  pope  out 


286        THE  HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  the  hands  of  the  Roman  mob  and  Influential  families, 
but  also  out  of  the  control  of  the  emperor.  A  number  of 
decrees  forbidding  the  clergy  to  receive  investiture  from 
laymen  were  also  issued  at  about  this  time.  During  this 
period,  moreover,  a  man  was  rising  step  by  step  toward  the 
highest  power  in  the  Church,  in  whose  breast  burned  with 
the  fierceness  of  intense  conviction  those  ideals  of  eccle- 
siastical purity  and  supremacy  which  have  been  already 
outlined. 

Hildebrand,  born  in  Tuscany  about  1025  of  poor  peas- 
ants, was  educated  at  the  Lateran  school;  was  nourished 
Career  of  from  his  infancy,  as  he  himself  more  than  once 
Hildebrand     said,  by  the  Apostle  Peter;  and  spent  his  entire 

to  1073  i-r-i  1  •  TT  -1, 

lire  m  the  papal  service.  He  accompanied  the 
simoniacal  pope,  Gregory  VI,  when  the  latter  was  deposed 
by  Henry  III  and  exiled  to  Germany,  and  he  returned  to 
Rome  with  Pope  Leo  IX,  who  in  1050  made  him  a  sub- 
deacon  and  cardinal.  Three  years  later  he  was  sent  to 
France  as  a  papal  legate  and  became  acquainted  with  the 
Abbot  of  Cluny,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  never  became  a 
Cluniac  monk  and  doubtful  if  he  was  a  monk  at  all.  On 
Leo's  death  he  went  from  France  to  Germany,  where 
Henry  III  appointed  a  German  bishop  as  Pope  Victor  II. 
When  both  this  pope  and  the  emperor  soon  after  died,  the 
Romans  chose  a  new  pope  without  consulting  young 
Henry  IV  or  his  mother,  the  regent.  This  new  pope  sent 
Hildebrand  back  to  Germany  again  as  one  of  two  legates  to 
announce  his  election,  and,  when  he  too  died  within  a  year, 
before  his  death  he  forbade  the  Romans  to  elect  his  suc- 
cessor until  Hildebrand  should  return.  They,  however, 
elected  another  pope  without  waiting  for  Hildebrand.  But 
when  Hildebrand  did  return,  he  disregarded  their  action 
and  at  Siena  secured  the  election  of  Nicholas  II.  It  is 
uncertain  whether  in  this  Hildebrand  was  executing  instruc- 
tions from  the  empress;  at  any  rate,  it  shows  his  increasing 
prominence  in  church  affairs.  He  now  became  a  deacon  and 
then  an  archdeacon,  and  was  entrusted  with  the  making  of 
a  treaty  with  the  Normans,  who  had  by  this  time  occupied 


GROWTH   OF  THE  MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       287 

southern  Italy.  What  part  he  had  in  the  decree  of  1059 
regulating  papal  elections  is  doubtful.  This  decree  and  the 
treaty  with  the  Normans  produced  a  breach  between  the 
imperial  court  and  Pope  Nicholas.  On  his  death  there  were 
two  rival  popes;  one,  whom  Hildebrand  supported,  was 
Alexander  II,  elected  by  the  method  prescribed  in  the 
decree  of  1059;  the  other  was  nominated  by  the  imperial 
court.  But  at  this  point  the  great  nobles  of  Germany  de- 
prived the  empress  of  the  regency,  and  Anno,  Archbishop 
of  Cologne,  held  a  synod  at  Mantua  which  decided  the 
disputed  election  in  favor  of  Alexander  II.  During  this 
pontificate  of  nine  years  Hildebrand  was  undoubtedly,  next 
to  the  pope  himself,  the  leading  figure  at  the  papal  court, 
and  in  1073,  when  Alexander  was  being  buried  in  the 
Lateran,  the  people  tumultuously  shouted  for  Hildebrand 
as  his  successor  and  forcibly  placed  him  upon  the  vacant 
throne  as  Pope  Gregory  VII,  without  paying  any  heed  to 
the  election  decree  of  1059. 

Gregory  VII  was  determined  to  enforce  strictly  the 
decrees  against  marriage  of  the  clergy,  simony,  and  lay 
investiture,  which  his  predecessors  had  already  Policies  of 
promulgated.  He  also  regarded  the  pope  as  Gregory.VII 
entrusted  by  God  with  supreme  oversight  and  control  of 
all  human  society;  he  believed  himself  to  be  above  kings, 
and  empowered  to  issue  orders  to  them  and  to  punish  them 
if  they  did  hot  obey.  He  thought  the  State  a  worldly  in- 
stitution built  up  by  sinful  men  who  often  were  violent 
and  unjust,  whereas  the  Church  was  a  divine  foundation. 
Consequently  the  pope  should  correct  erring  or  incompe- 
tent monarchs.  Gregory  was  not  content  to  try  to  free  the 
Church  from  the  control  of  feudal  lords ;  he  also  attempted 
to  bring  various  European  states  into  feudal  subjection  to 
the  Papacy.  Corsica  and  Sardinia  he  regarded  as  his  fiefs; 
the  Norman  ruler  of  southern  Italy  had  become  the  vassal 
of  the  pope  in  1059;  and  Gregory  endeavored  to  make  the 
rulers  of  Spain,  England,  Hungary,  and  Denmark  his  vas- 
sals. This  illustrates  how  universal  were  feudal  conceptions, 
that  even  a  pope  who  tried  to  free  the  Church  from  feudalism 


288       THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

could  not  free  his  own  mind  or  government  from  feudal 
methods. 

Among  Gregory's  papers  is  found  a  list  of  twenty-seven 
propositions  concerning  powers  possessed  or  claimed  by  the 
1^1.    r.   .  .      popes,  known  as  the  Dictatus.   This  brief  mem- 

The  Dictatus  ,  .  ^ 

orandum  was  not  written  by  Gregory,  however, 
since  some  of  its  propositions  are  contradicted  in  his  un- 
disputed works;  but  it  illustrates  the  vast  powers  claimed 
at  about  this  time  for  the  Papacy.  It  asserts  that  the  pope 
never  errs ;  that  he  is  above  criticism,  supreme  over  bishops 
and  even  a  church  council;  supreme  also  over  the  State,  the 
law,  and  literature.  These  were  prerogatives  even  more 
extensive  than  Gregory  VII  attempted  in  practice,  but  the 
program  was  one  which  his  successors  tried  to  realize  in  the 
next  few  centuries. 

Gregory  is  cKstinguished  by  the  violent  and  extreme 
methods  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  in  the  effort  to 
Gregory's  enforce  his  ideals.  In  order  to  root  out  the  mar- 
methods  j.jg(j  clergy,  he  deprived  them  of  their  revenues, 
forbade  the  laity  to  recognize  them  any  longer  as  priests, 
and  even  required  their  parishioners  to  rise  against  them 
and  drive  them  out.  He  not  only  excommunicated  worldly 
rulers  with  whom  he  had  differences,  but  deposed  them  and 
encouraged  their  vassals  and  subjects  to  revolt,  thus  incit- 
ing sedition  and  civil  war. 

The  pontificate  of  Gregory  was  full  of  struggles,  but  the 
chief  conflict  was  with  the  young  emperor,  Henry  IV. 
Beginning  of  Whether  we  believe  that  the  power  of  the  Holy 
with  '  Roman  Emperors  reached  its  height  under 
Henry  IV  Henry  III,  or  think  that  it  had  already  in  his 
day  begun  to  decline  from  the  power  of  his  predecessor, 
Conrad  II,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  imperial  authority 
was  greatly  weakened  during  the  long  minority  of  Henry  IV, 
and  that  he  had  his  hands  full  of  political  problems  when 
Gregory  VII  became  pope.  Henry  was  at  odds  with  the 
great  nobles  and  was  trying  to  build  up  a  military  power 
based  upon  the  ministeriales .  He  also  was  trying  to  cre- 
ate a  royal  domain  in  Saxony,  and  thereby  encountered  a 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH        289 

dangerous  rebellion  of  the  freedom-loving  Saxons.  Before 
Gregory  became  pope,  members  of  Henry 's  council  had  been 
excommunicated  for  their  interference  in  ecclesiastical 
appointments,  and  Henry  would  incur  excommunication  if 
he  continued  to  associate  with  these  advisors. 

Since  in  1073  the  Saxons  had  got  the  better  of  Henry  and 
there  was  danger  that  another  king  might  be  set  up  in  his 
place,  he  wrote  a  very  humble  letter  to  the  pope,  Henry's  first 
admitting  that  he  had  sold  church  offices  and  submission 
named  unworthy  bishops,  and  promising  henceforth  to  co- 
operate with  the  pope  in  the  cause  of  church  reform.  The 
next  year  he  did  penance  before  papal  legates  at  Niirnberg 
and  received  a  letter  from  Gregory  congratulating  him  upon 
his  "devoted  servitude"  to  the  apostolic  see. 

By  1075,  however,  Henry  was  victorious  over  the  Saxons 
and  pressed  the  pope  to  agree  to  his  immediate  coronation 
at  Rome  as  emperor.  Gregory  was  inclined  to  Events  of 
stipulate  conditions  before  proceeding  to  the  the  year 
coronation,  and  had  held  a  synod  which  passed 
new  decrees  against  lay  investiture  and  forbade  the  King 
of  Germany  to  dispose  of  bishoprics.  Henry,  on  the  con- 
trary, continued  his  interference  in  the  ecclesiastical  affairs 
of  northern  Italy,  and  tried  to  come  to  an  understanding 
with  Robert  Guiscard,  the  Norman  ruler  of  Sicily  and 
southern  Italy.  Our  sources  for  this  important  year,  1075, 
are  scanty,  but  it  terminated  with  a  rough  letter  from  the 
pope  to  Henry  and  a  still  more  threatening  verbal  message 
brought  by  papal  ambassadors  to  the  effect  that  Henry's 
private  immorality  and  public  policy  were  both  so  offensive 
that  he  was  liable  not  only  to  excommunication,  but  to 
deposition.  Henry  thereupon  summoned  to  Worms  a  coun- 
cil of  German  bishops  who  charged  Gregory  with  a  variety 
of  sins  and  declared  him  deposed  from  his  papal  office. 
Gregory  promptly  replied  by  both  excommunicating  and 
deposing  Henry,  and  not  only  released  all  his  subjects  from 
their  oaths  of  allegiance,  but  positively  forbade  them  to 
obey  him.  The  great  lay  lords  took  the  side  of  the  pope, 
just  as   the  bishops  had   supported  Henry.    The  nobility 


290        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ordered  Henry  to  refrain  entirely  from  the  exercise  of  his  polit- 
ical functions  until  he  had  been  released  from  the  papal 
excommunication.  Such  a  release  must  be  secured  within 
a  year  and  a  day  or  his  crown  would  be  forfeited.  They 
invited  the  pope  to  visit  Germany  the  next  spring  and 
arbitrate  their  grievances  against  Henry. 

Henry  saw  that  the  time  had  come  for  another  submis- 
sion. He  crossed  the  Alps  in  the  depth  of  winter  and  met 
Gregory  on  his  way  north  at  the  castle  of  the 
pope's  friend,  the  Countess  Matilda  of  Tuscany, 
at  Canossa.  By  his  penitent  attitude,  standing,  one  source 
says,  for  three  days  barefoot  in  the  snow,  Henry  practically 
forced  the  reluctant  pontiff  to  raise  the  ban  of  excommuni- 
cation. Outwardly  the  scene  appeared  a  great  humiliatioQ 
for  Henry,  but  it  was  not  a  very  substantial  triumph  for 
Gregory.  Henry  had  satisfied  public  opinion  by  his  appar- 
ent reconciliation  with  the  pope,  and  when  the  great  lords 
ignored  it  and  elected  another  king  in  his  place,  they  failed 
to  receive  general  support.  Henry  in  his  government  had 
shown  regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  common  people  and  they 
saw  no  reason  for  disloyalty,  now  that  he  had  apparently 
made  his  peace  with  the  Church.  The  real  objection  of  the 
great  nobles  and  the  pope  to  Henry  was  not  that  he  was  a 
bad  and  incompetent  ruler,  but  that  he  was  exerting  too 
much  influence  in  spheres  which  they  regarded  as  their  own. 

Gregory  hardly  knew  what  attitude  to  take  between 
Henry  and  the  rival  whom  the  princes  had  raised  against 
Exile  and  ^^"^'  -^^  tried  to  arbitrate  between  them  and  as 
death  of  a  result  alienated  both  parties.  Finally,  in  1080, 
when  Henry  threatened  to  set  up  an  anti-pope 
unless  Gregory  excommunicated  his  rival,  Gregory  came  to 
a  decision  and  again  excommunicated  and  deposed  Henry. 
The  German  bishops  thereupon  held  various  synods,  pre- 
ferred more  charges  against  Gregory,  deposed  him,  and 
named  in  his  stead  the  Archbishop  of  Ravenna,  a  good  and 
learned  man.  Henry's  rival  was  slain  in  battle  and  Henry 
proceeded  to  attack  Rome.  Many  of  the  cardinals  deserted 
Gregory,  and  in  1084  Henry  won  the  city  and  was  at  last 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       291 

crowned  emperor  by  the  anti-pope.  Robert  Guiscard,  the 
Norman  ruler  of  southern  Italy  and  the  pope's  vassal,  but 
who  had  done  nothing  to  help  him  during  the  two-year 
siege  of  the  city,  now  at  last  appeared  to  relieve  Gregory, 
who  was  still  holding  out  in  the  Castle  of  Sant'  Angelo, 
formerly  the  tomb  of  the  great  Roman  emperor,  Hadrian. 
Henry  had  returned  to  Germany,  but  it  was  only  by  treach- 
ery that  the  Norman  gained  admission  to  the  city.  A  sack 
followed,  which  was  possibly  more  destructive  of  property 
and  life  than  that  of  Alaric  in  410  or  that  of  the  Vandals  in 
455 ;  many  of  the  people  were  slaughtered  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  city  was  burned.  Naturally  the  Romans  became 
more  alienated  from  Gregory  than  before.  He  deemed  it 
prudent  to  leave  the  city  with  his  Norman  allies  and  died 
the  next  year  at  Salerno,  asserting  with  his  last  breath,  "I 
have  loved  justice  and  hated  iniquity;  therefore  I  die  in 
exile."  But  the  manner  of  his  death  was  not  unfitting  for 
one  who  had  resorted  to  such  violent  methods. 

The  end  of  Henry  was  no  happier,  though  he  seemed  for 
the  moment  to  have  triumphed  and  lived  for  a  score  of 
years  longer.    Gregory's  successors  renewed  his  Settlement 

....  1  of  the  in- 

excommumcation ;  his  anti-popes  soon  became  vestiture 
powerless;  he  lost  control  of  Italy,  and  his  sons  question 
rebelled  against  him  in  Germany.  Despite  this,  Henry  V, 
on  succeeding  his  father,  pursued  the  same  policy  in  regard 
to  the  question  of  investiture.  In  mi  he  marched  upon 
Rome  and  secured  from  Pope  Paschal  II  the  remarkably 
fair  proposal  that  the  bishops  and  abbots  should  give  up 
their  secular  power  and  their  estates,  and  that  the  emperor 
should  renounce  the  right  of  investiture.  This  proposal 
proved,  however,  too  idealistic  and  revolutionary  to  be 
tolerated  by  the  bishops  and  abbots  in  question  or  by  the 
German  princes  generally.  Instead,  it  was  finally  agreed  by 
the  Concordat  of  Worms  in  1122  that  nowhere  should  the 
clergy  any  longer  receive  the  symbols  of  their  spiritual 
functions  from  the  hands  of  secular  rulers;  but  that  in 
Germany  ecclesiastical  elections  should  take  place  in  the 
royal  presence  and  that  the  bishop,  before  he  could  be  con- 


292        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

secrated,  must  be  invested  with  his  temporal  fiefs  by  the 
king  or  emperor;  while  in  the  Kingdoms  of  Aries  and  of 
Italy  the  secular  ruler  must  invest  the  bishop  with  his 
temporalities  within  six  months  after  his  consecration.  This 
made  the  Italian  clergy  practically  independent  of  the 
emperor,  whereas  the  German  Church  was  likely  to  remain 
still  under  his  control.  For  England  the  question  was  com- 
promised in  about  the  same  way  as  for  Germany,  but  in 
France  the  Church  came  nearest  to  settling  the  questions 
of  ecclesiastical  elections  and  investitures  to  suit  itself. 
In  1 139  a  papal  decree  that  bishops  should  henceforth  be 
elected  by  the  clergy  of  their  cathedral  chapter  excluded 
the  people  of  the  episcopal  city  from  participating  in  the 
election,  but  does  not  appear  to  have  lessened  royal  inter- 
ference much. 

Of  the  three  reforms  which  Hildebrand  and  his  pred- 
ecessors and  successors  in  the  papal  chair  had  attempted. 
Results  of  they  had  been  most  successful  in  regard  to  celi- 
the  Hilde-  bacy  of  the  clergy.  Simony  had  been  partially 
reform  and    temporarily   checked,   but   was   an  abuse 

movement  ^^^^  could  scarcely  ever  be  prevented  entirely. 
Against  lay  investiture  they  won  only  a  limited  success  and 
one  that  wg^s  not  even  so  considerable  as  it  at  first  seemed. 
But  in  a  general  way  the  Church  and  the  Papacy  had 
shown  vast  strength  and  endurance ;  as  a  whole  their  power 
and  prestige  had  greatly  increased,  and  were  to  continue  to 
do  so  for  another  century. 

For  another  century,  too,  the  popes  and  emperors  were 
to  be  at  bitter  strife.  The  chief  reason  for  this  was  the 
Continued  occasional  appearance  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Papacy  and  Emperor  in  Italy.  As  a  result  he  kept  getting 
the  Holy        jnto  difficulties  with  the  Papacy  and  usually 

Roman  1  1  -i 

Empire  bore  the  brunt  of  the  pope's  displeasure,  while 

the  English  and  French  monarchs  were  able  to  exercise  a 
control  over  church  affairs  that  the  pope  might  not  have 
tolerated,  had  his  attention  and  energy  not  been  so  absorbed 
by  the  emperor. 
-.  William  of  Normandy,  for  example,  although  he  had  con- 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       293 

quered  England  under  papal  auspices,  paid  no  attention  to 
the  decrees  against  investitures  and  refused  to  William  the 
take  an  oath  of  fealty  to  Gregory  VII,  when  and^he™^ 
the  latter  requested  it.  William  further  affirmed  Papacy  .  , 

that  his  royal  permission  must  be  obtained  before  church 
councils  could  be  held  in  his  kingdom,  before  papal  bulls 
might  be  published  there,  and  before  any  of  his  officials  or  !* 
vassals  might  be  excommunicated.  Yet  Gregory  did  not 
excommunicate  William  or  threaten  to  depose  him,  partly 
probably  because  he  was  a  generous  patron  of  churches  and 
monasteries  and  was  bringing  the  English  church  service 
and  clergy  into  conformity  with  Continental  practice;  but 
partly  in  all  likelihood  because  it  was  hopeless  to  think 
of  deposing  William  who  had  just  thoroughly  conquered 
England  and  held  it  submissive  under  his  strong  rule. 
Henry  IV  seemed  easier  to  fight  with. 

But  the  Church  was  sure  to  press  its  claims  as  it  found  a 
good  opportunity,  even  in  France  and  England.   The  suc- 
cessor of  the  Conqueror,  William  Rufus,  whose  Growing 
immorality,   profanity,   and   tyranny  gave   the  between 
Church  a  handle  against  him,  had  an  indeci-  sta"Je^iJi^"^ 
sive  struggle  with  his  archbishop,  Anselm,  as  to  England 
whether  the  latter  should  obey  the  pope  or  the  king  on 
disputed  points.    In  the  next  reign  of  Henry  I  the  investi- 
ture question  reached  England  and  was  finally  compromised 
as  above  indicated.    But  then  during  the  long  civil  wars 
between  Stephen  and  Matilda  the  Church  slipped  away 
from  the  royal  control,  was  granted  liberties  by  Stephen 
in   an  effort  to  secure  its  support,  and  through  its  own 
ecclesiastical  courts  tried  to  supply  some  of  the  justice  and 
security  that  were  just  then  so  woefully  lacking. 

We  have  in  earlier  chapters  noted  the  judicial  privileges 
and  powers  granted  by  the  Theodosian  Code  to  the  Chris- 
tian clergy  of  the  declining  Roman  Empire,  and   Rise  of 

Z.1-    J.        '^1      o-i         J*  r    •  '1  J    ecclesiastical        ^ 

that  With   the  disappearance  01   imperial   and  courts:  their    ' 
municipal  government  in  the  West  the  bishop  jurisdiction 
often  became  a  sort  of  local  ruler.    Naturally  his  court  ac- 
quired an  increasing  amount  of  judicial  business,  especially 


294        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

in  those  departments  of  law  which  were  inadequately  dealt 
with  by  the  customs  of  the  barbarian  invaders  and  the  tri- 
bunals of  the  feudal  lords.  As  the  church  service  continued 
to  be  in  the  Latin  language,  so  the  church  courts  preserved 
a  considerable  amount  of  Roman  law,  and  they  were  usually 
more  merciful  and  equitable  in  their  judgments  than  the 
secular  courts  of  those  times.  For  these  reasons  and  others, 
the  church  courts  came  to  claim  jurisdiction  not  only  over 
all  cases  in  which  a  clergyman  or  church  property  was  con- 
cerned, or  where  a  man  was  charged  with  heresy  or  irreli- 
gion,  but  also  over  many  other  matters  which  are  to-day 
and  had  been  in  Roman  times  settled  by  the  ordinary  law 
courts.  Since  baptism  was  a  sacrament  performed  and 
recorded  by  the  clergy,  it  was  natural  for  the  church  courts 
to  settle  lawsuits  where  questions  of  birth  were  involved. 
Marriage,  too,  was  regarded  as  a  sacrament  and  performed 
by  clergy  and  subject  to  rules  made  by  the  Church,  such  as 
that  near  relatives  might  not  wed.  Consequently  cases  con- 
cerning matrimony  and  applications  for  separation  or  di- 
vorce came  before  a  church  court.  The  barbarians  had 
seldom  made  wills,  but  let  their  property  pass  in  accordance 
with  fixed  custom  to  the  nearest  kin ;  persons  who  wished  to 
contravert  this  rule  were  apt  to  desire  to  do  so  in  order  to 
leave  something  to  the  Church;  moreover,  the  clergy  were 
about  the  only  persons  who  could  write  a  will  or  anything 
else,  and  they  were  likely  to  be  present  at  deathbeds  to 
render  the  last  ministrations  to  the  dying.  For  all  these 
reasons  the  ecclesiastical  courts  had  secured  well-nigh  a 
monopoly  of  the  law  of  testaments.  Since  an  oath  was  a 
religious  act,  the  church  courts  also  took  cognizance  of 
cases  involving  sworn  contracts.  The  ecclesiastical  courts 
further  took  it  upon  themselves  to  forbid  and  to  endeavor  to 
punish  a  number  of  practices  which  were  believed  to  be 
prohibited  by  the  Bible  or  by  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
although  they  might  not  be  proscribed  as  torts  or  crimes  by 
the  secular  courts.  Blasphemy  is  one  example.  Another  is 
the  lending  of  money  at  interest  by  Christians,  which  was 
absolutely  prohibited  by  medieval  canon  law. 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       295 

Had  the  bishops  remained  under  royal  control  to  the 
extent  that  they  were  in  the  reigns  of  Clovis  and  Charle- 
magne and  William  the  Conqueror,  kings  might  Appeals  to; 
have  raised  little  objection  to  this  extension  of  court?^^ 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  although  of  course  the  canon  law 
fees  and  fines  of  an  ecclesiastical  court  did  not  go  into  the 
royal  treasury.  But  the  bishops  were  coming  to  look  more 
and  more  toward  Rome,  and  although  the  investiture  strife 
had  left  the  kings  a  large  influence  over  episcopal  elections, 
they  no  longer  found  it  as  easy  to  control  a  bishop  once  he 
had  been  elected.  Moreover,  the  custom  had  grown  up  of 
appealing  cases  from  the  local  episcopal  courts,  presided 
over  by  the  archdeacons,  to  the  papal  court  at  Rome,  which 
was  becoming  the  supreme  court  of  Christendom.  Indeed, 
very  important  cases  were  often  brought  before  the  papal 
court  in  the  first  instance.  A  uniform  system  of  law  came  to 
be  accepted  throughout  the  Church  in  the  West,  based  upon 
the  decrees  of  the  popes  and  church  councils  and  upon  the 
decisions  rendered  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  called 
"canon  law."  A  few  years  before  Henry  II  became  King  of 
England  a  monk  named  Gratian  at  Bologna  in  Italy  had 
made  a  compilation  of  the  canons,  or  rules  and  decrees  of 
the  Church,  which  was  generally  accepted. 

Henry  II  speedily  restored  order  and  the  royal  power  in 
England,  and  deprived  of  their  castles  the  feudal  nobles 
who  had  been  making  trouble.  It  was  one  thing  Henry  II 
to  crush  rebellious  vassals,  who  were  disorderly  and  Thomas 

BccKct 

and  lawless  and  of  whose  anarchy  and  evil  deeds 
the  English  people  were  heartily  tired ;  it  was  quite  another 
thing  to  try  to  restrict  the  growing  power  of  a  great  organi- 
zation with  a  systematic  body  of  law,  and  which  had  at 
that  time  a  greater  hold  upon  the  popular  mind  than  royalty 
had,  and  which  was  more  beloved  by  the  people  than  was  the 
stocky,  red-headed,  young  foreigner  -^ho  could  spend  but  a 
fraction  of  his  time  away  from  his  vast  Continental  fiefs. 
Yet  Henry  elected  to  struggle  against  the  Church  as  well  as 
against  feudalism,  to  try  to  regain  from  it  the  powers  which 
it  had  assumed  of  late  in  England,  and  to  bring  its  property, 


296        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

its  clergy,  and  its  courts  under  the  royal  jurisdiction,  and 
to  shut  off  all  appeals  to  the  papal  court  at  Rome.  To  ac- 
complish this,  the  busy  Henry  in  1162  secured  the  election, 
as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  or  Primate  of  the  Church  in 
England,  of  his  friend  Thomas  Becket,  on  whose  devotion 
he  thought  that  he  could  rely  and  who  was  already  serving 
him  faithfully  in  political  matters  as  his  chancellor.  Becket 
protested,  however,  against  being  made  archbishop,  and, 
as  soon  as  he  was  elected,  resigned  the  chancellorship  and 
devoted  himself  henceforth  solely  to  the  interests  of  the 
Church  and  the  Papacy.  Instead  of  cooperating  with  the 
king  in  the  latter's  effort  to  check  the  growing  independ- 
ence of  the  Church  and  the  clergy,  Thomas  now  opposed 
him  at  every  point. 

A  crucial  instance  was  the  question  of  the  treatment  of 
clergymen  who  had  committed  crimes  such  as  murder  and 
The  question  robbery,  or  at  least  were  accused  of  such  deeds, 
of  "crimi-  ^^  The  ccclesiastical  courts  would  not  shed  blood 
and  were  apt  to  let  such  "criminous  clerks"  off 
with  a  light  sentence,  if  they  found  them  guilty  at  all. 
Henry  was  very  dissatisfied  with  this  state  of  affairs  and 
felt  that  he  could  not  keep  due  order  in  his  realm  unless  all 
criminals,  whether  clergy  or  laymen,  were  alike  severely 
punished.  He  therefore  demanded  that  his  own  judges 
should  be  present  at  the  trial  in  the  ecclesiastical  court  to 
see  that  the  accused  was  not  unduly  favored,  and  that  if  the 
accused  clergyman  was  found  guilty,  he  should  be  turned 
over  to  the  royal  officials  for  condign  punishment.  But 
Becket  held  that  this  "would  be  bringing  Christ  again  before 
Pontius  Pilate,"  and  carried  the  other  bishops  with  him  in 
opposition  to  the  king. 

Henry,  however,  finally  induced  them  to  agree  to  obey 
the  customs  of  the  realm,  and  then  called  a  meeting  of  his 
The  "Con-  barons  and  appointed  a  committee  of  the  old- 
stitutions  of  est  to  draw  up  a  list  of  the  customs  bearing 
upon  the  relations  of  Church  and  State  from  the 
reign  of  Henry  I.  These  are  known  as  the  "Constitutions 
of  Clarendon."     They  upheld  the  king  in   the  matter  of 


GROWTH   OF  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH       297 

"criminous  clerks";  gave  the  royal  courts  the  right  to 
determine  whether  cases  concerning  ecclesiastical  lands 
and  persons  should  be  tried  in  the  church  courts  or  the 
king's  courts;  stated  that  the  king's  tenants-in-chief  or  his 
officials  or  the  men  on  his  own  estates  could  not  be  excom- 
municated without  his  consent;  forbade  the  clergy  to  leave 
the  realm  without  his  permission;  and  did  not  allow  appeals 
to  the  papal  court.  After  a  vigorous  protest  Thomas  un- 
willingly accepted  the  "Constitutions,"  but  immediately 
after  repented  of  his  action  and  appealed  to  the  pope  to 
absolve  him  from  the  oath  which  he  had  taken  to  observe 
them. 

Becket  then  fled  from  the  wrath  of  Henry  to  the  domains 
of  Louis  VII  of  France,  where  Pope  Alexander  III  had  also 
taken  refuge  from  the  hostile  emperor,  Frederick  Becket 
Barbarossa,  and  an  anti-pope.  The  pope  was  ^"  ^^^'^ 
shocked  by  the  tenor  of  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  and 
absolved  Thomas  from  observing  such  as  infringed  upon  the 
rights  of  the  Church  and  of  the  clergy.  But  the  pope  did 
not  wish  to  make  an  enemy  of  Henry,  who  controlled  half 
of  France  as  well  as  all  England,  and  who  had  thus  far 
supported  him  against  the  anti-pope  set  up  by  the  emperor. 
The  pope  therefore  left  it  to  Becket  to  carry  on  a  struggle 
for  six  years,  in  which  Thomas  excommunicated  many  of 
the  king's  followers  and  threatened  Henry  himself  with  the 
same  treatment.  Meanwhile  the  papal  legates  made  re- 
peated efforts  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the 
king  and  his  archbishop. 

Finally  Becket  agreed  to  return  to  England,  but  as  soon 
as  he  arrived  issued  a  fresh  batch  of  excommunications. 
When  news  of  this  reached  Henry  in  Normandy,  ^^^  murder 
he  flew  into  such  a  fit  of  rage  and  used  such  Ian-  of  Becket: 

its  results 

guage  that  four  of  his  knights  crossed  the 
Channel  and  murdered  the  archbishop  in  the  cathedral  at 
Canterbury.  This  was  a  disastrous  event  for  Henry  and 
turned  public  opinion  quite  against  him.  Becket  was  re- 
garded as  a  martyr  who  had  died  for  the  Church,  within 
three  years  the  pope  canonized  him,  and  his  shrine  at  Can- 


298        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

terbury  became  the  great  resort  of  pilgrims  in  England 
throughout  the  remainder  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  has 
been  immortalized  in  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  although 
the  shrine  itself  was  plundered  and  destroyed  by  Henry 
VIII  after  his  break  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  Henry  II 
found  it  necessary  to  say  no  more  about  the  Constitutions 
of  Clarendon,  to  allow  clergy  accused  of  crimes  to  be  tried 
in  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  to  permit  appeals  to  Rome, 
He  also  did  penance  both  before  papal  legates  at  Avranches 
in  Normandy  and  later  at  Becket's  tomb,  where  he  was 
scourged  so  that  he  was  ill  the  next  day.  Henry,  however, 
laid  the  foundations  in  England  of  the  common  law  and 
its  courts,  destined  in  the  end  to  prevail  throughout  all 
England,  and  no  future  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  so 
aggressive  against  the  Crown  as  Becket  had  been. 

From  the  strife  of  Church  and  State  let  us  revert  a  mo- 
ment to  Cluny,  where  the  movement  for  church  reform  and 
Monastic  ecclcsiastical  independence  and  supremacy  had 
movements  f^j-st  become  apparent.  The  Congregation  of 
twelfth  Cluny,  because  of  the  too  great  wealth  it  had 

century  acquired,  had   itself  declined  in   influence   and 

in  popular  esteem.  But  many  new  monastic  orders  with 
stricter  rules  came  into  existence  in  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries,  especially  in  France.  Prominent  among 
these  were  the  Carthusians,  who  wore  haircloth  shirts  and 
lived  each  in  a  separate  cell,  and  the  Cistercians,  who  even 
gave  up  education  and  all  ornamentation  in  their  churches, 
where  there  must  be  no  sign  of  wealth.  There  was  now  also 
a  widespread  movement  to  revive  the  custom  that  priests 
and  other  secular  clergy  in  any  town  should  live  together 
under  a  monastic  rule,  especially  those  clergy  called  canons 
who  formed  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral  church.  We  saw 
that  Augustine  introduced  this  practice  into  Africa  about 
400  A.D.  and  that  consequently  such  clergy  called  them- 
selves "Augustinian"  or  "Austin"  canons.  More  than  one 
such  order  of  canons  was  founded,  however.  Especially 
prominent  were  the  Premonstratensians,  founded  about 
1 1 20  at  Premontre,  in  northeastern  France,  by  Norbert. 


GROWTH   OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH       299 

Thus,  while  Cluny  had  declined,  the  monastic  movement 
had  grown. 

The  most  influential  churchman  of  the  twelfth  century 
never  became  pope.  This  was  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux 
(1091-1153),  who,  as  a  Cistercian  monk,  refused 
all  ecclesiastical  offices  and  honors.  But  he  de- 
cided a  disputed  papal  election  and  healed  a  schism;  he 
peached  the  second  crusade;  he  often  settled  disputes 
between  princes  and  prelates,  and  he  arbitrated  inter- 
national difficulties.  He  was  of  noble  descent  with  a  beauti- 
ful face  and  graceful  manners,  but  gave  himself  over  to  a 
life  of  rigorous  asceticism  and  mystic  devotion.  Some  of  the 
hymns  ascribed  to  him  are  still  familiar  to-day  and  are 
sung  in  English  translation  even  in  Protestant  churches; 
for  instance,  those  beginning  — 

"Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  Thee 
With  sweetness  fills  the  breast"; 
and 

"  Of  Him  who  did  salvation  bring, 
I  could  forever  think  and  sing." 

St.  Bernard  was  as  outspoken  concerning  the  faults  of  the 
clergy  and  abuses  in  the  Church  as  he  was  fearless  in  rebuk- 
ing kings  and  lords  whom  he  believed  to  be  offending  God. 
He  could  move  both  kings  and  crowds  by  his  eloquence;  but 
he  had  little  sympathy  for  the  secular  learning  which  was  by 
this  time  beginning  to  appear  again  in  the  West.  He  always 
put  faith  above  reason. 

Besides  the  widespread  monastic  revival,  there  was 
another  great  movement  which  was  at  least  semi-religious 
in  character;  namely,  the  crusading  movement  ^, 
which  will  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter  on 
the  expansion  of  Christendom.  The  First  Crusade  was  in- 
spired by  the  pope  in  a  speech  made  at  Clermont-Ferrand 
in  south  central  France  in  1095,  and  the  crusading  move- 
ment as  a  whole  illustrates  the  great  hold  which  the  Church 
had  upon  the  men  of  that  time. 


3CX)        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

The  Papacy  during  the  Carolingian  Period. 
Emerton,  Medieval  Europe,  pp.  41-88. 

Cluny. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  137-52. 

The  Foundation  Charter  of  the  Monastery  of  Cluny. 
Ogg,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  245-49. 

1.  When  is  the  charter  granted  and  by  whom? 

2.  To  whom  is  the  grant  made? 

3.  What  is  ceded  and  for  what  purpose? 

4.  What  are  the  motives  of  the  grantor  of  the  charter? 

5.  On  what  conditions  is  the  grant  made? 

6.  What  are  to  be  the  relations  of  Cluny  to  Rome?  to  all   other 
powers? 

The  Monastic  Orders. 

D.  C.  Munro,  A  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  122-34. 

Henry  III  and  Church  Reform. 

Emerton,  Medieval  Europe,  pp.  194-209. 

Gregory  VII. 
Article  in  the  eleventh  edition  of  the  Encyclopadia  Britannica. 

Investitures. 
Article  in  the  Catholic  Encyclopcedia. 

Canossa. 
A.  H.  Mathew,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Hildebrand  (London,   1910),  pp. 
I23-33- 

The  Norman  Sack  of  Rome. 

A.  H.  Mathew,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Hildebrand,  pp.  229-41. 

Canon  Law. 

Emerton,  Medieval  Europe,  pp.  582-92. 

Monks  of  the  Twelfth  Century. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  153-58. 

St.  Bernard. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  406-31. 
Ogg,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  250-60. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   EXPANSION    OF   CHRISTENDOM   AND   THE   CRUSADES 

While  feudal  lords  were  busily  engaged  in  acquiring 
power  over  various  localities  and  the  popes  aimed  at  world- 
empire,  there  was  one  work  in  which  they  cor-  The  causes 
dially  cooperated ;  namely,  the  expansion  of  °^  expansion 
Christendom  and  the  crusades.  The  Christian  world  in  the 
West  of  Charlemagne's  time  had  covered  a  very  restricted 
area,  which  the  invasions  of  Northmen,  Saracens,  and  Hun- 
garians during  the  break-up  of  his  empire  had  threatened  to 
reduce  further.  But  these  new  invaders  had  been  finally 
checked  or  absorbed.  The  Northmen  had  been  converted 
even  in  their  home  land,  Scandinavia,  and  the  Magyars 
accepted  Christianity  during  the  reign  of  St.  Stephen  of 
Hungary  (997-1038).  At  the  same  time  there  were  political 
divisions  rife  in  the  Mohammedan  world,  and  there  was  a 
temporary  lull  in  the  pressure  which  the  nomads  of  Asia  had 
been  exerting  upon  the  West  almost  continuously  since  the 
first  appearance  of  the  Huns.  Finally,  in  western  Europe 
the  population  was  now  increasing  instead  of  declining  as  in 
the  time  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  supply  of  land  to  give 
out  as  fiefs  was  becoming  exhausted  and  younger  sons  and 
other  would-be  vassals  must  migrate  elsewhere  to  satisfy 
their  desires.  Also  the  villas  were  overcrowded  with  tenants 
and  serfs,  many  of  whom  could  readily  be  drawn  away  by 
an  offer  of  new  lands  and  slightly  better  conditions  of 
holding. 

Into  southern  Italy,  where  Byzantines  and  Saracens  and 
local  nobles  and  towns  were  contending,  came  in  the  early 
eleventh    century    Norman    pilgrims    returning  Normans  in 
from  Jerusalem  and  Norman  soldiers  of  fortune  i^^iy  and 
still  possessed  by  their  race's  old  spirit  of  wan-   Sicily 
dering  and  adventure.   After  serving  the  contending  parties 
for  a  time  as  mercenaries,  they  entered  the  fray  in  their 


302        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

own  interest.  In  1053  they  defeated  and  captured  Pope 
Leo  IX,  and  in  1059  Pope  Nicholas  II  recognized  Robert 
Guiscard  (the  Wary)  as  Duke  of  ApuHa,  Calabria,  and  Sicily 
—  land  which  he  agreed  to  hold  as  a  fief  from  the  Papacy. 
He  proved  a  troublesome  vassal,  and  conquered  a  number 
of  papal  possessions,  and  had  to  be  excommunicated  more 
than  once;  but  the  popes  needed  his  aid  to  put  down  the 
robber  barons  in  the  vicinity  of  Rome,  and  later  to  resist  the 
Holy  Roman  Emperor.  Southern  Italy  was  not  entirely  in 
Norman  hands  until  the  fall  of  Bari,  the  last  Byzantine 
stronghold,  in  1071 ;  and  twenty  more  years  passed  before  the 
conquest  of  Sicily  was  completed,  although  the  Saracen 
capital,  Palermo,  was  taken  in  1072.  Western  Christianity 
not  only  gained  at  the  expense  of  Islam  by  these  Norman 
conquests,  but  those  regions  of  southern  Italy  which  the 
iconoclastic  Emperor  Leo  had  transferred  to  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople  were  now  brought  back  under  papal 
control.  In  1130  the  Norman  rulers  were  granted  the  title, 
King  of  Sicily.  They  built  up  a  strong  form  of  government, 
but  their  dynasty  ended  with  the  twelfth  century,  when  the 
Holy  Roman  Emperor,  Henry  VI,  who  had  married  the  Nor- 
man heiress,  made  good  his  claim  to  the  Sicilian  crown. 

In  the  Spanish  peninsula,  after  the  dismemberment  of  the 
Caliphate  of  Cordova  in  the  early  eleventh  century,  the 
Christian  ex-  Christian  states  gradually  pushed  their  bound- 
th"spanish  aries  south  at  the  expense  of  the  Moslems,  al- 
peninsula  though  this  was  not  accomplished  without  oc- 
casional setbacks  and  vicissitudes.  The  Christians  often 
stopped  to  fight  among  themselves.  Leon  and  Castile  were 
at  times  united  under  one  ruler  into  a  strong  military  king- 
dom, and  then  again  divided  among  several  heirs.  The 
progress  of  the  Christian  arms  was  also  twice  checked  by 
fanatical  hosts  of  Mohammedan  barbarians  from  Africa 
who  extended  their  sway  into  Spain  and  were  called  "  Almo- 
ravides"  and  "Almohades"  respectively.  For  example,  in 
1085,  Alfonso  VI  of  Castile  and  Leon,  following  up  the 
successful  campaigns  of  his  father,  took  Toledo;  but  the 
next  year  he  was  decisively  defeated  by  the  Almoravides  at 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  303 

Zaiaca  in  west  central  Spain.  The  advent  of  these  barbar- 
ous tribes  of  the  desert  was  unfavorable  to  the  civilization 
which  had  hitherto  flourished  in  Mohammedan  Spain,  nor 
did  they  build  up  a  strong  state.  More  intolerant  than 
previous  Mohammedan  rulers,  they  provoked  their  Chris- 
tian subjects  the  more  to  revolt. 

Christian  knights  from  beyond  the  Pyrenees,  especially 
from  southern  France,  participated  in  the  recovery  of  the 
Spanish   peninsula   from  the  Moslems  and  re-  Knights 
ceived   lands  for  their  pains.    The   Cistercian  and  monks 

^        x-»  It  •  1  in  Spain 

monks,  at  St.  Bernard  s  suggestion,  spread  to 
Spain  in  the  twelfth  century.  Various  military  orders  — 
some  of  them  general  European  organizations  like  the 
Templars  and  Hospitalers,  others  special  Spanish  and  Por- 
tuguese Orders  —  also  established  themselves  in  the  pen- 
insula and  received  vast  grants  of  land. 

Portugal  began  its  separate  history  in  1095,  when  the 
aforesaid  Alfonso  VI  of  Castile  gave  his  natural  daughter, 
together  with  the  Counties  of  Oporto  and  Coim-  ^^ 

bra,  to  H-enry  of  Burgundy,  one  of  the  foreign 
feudal  nobles  who  had  been  aiding  him  in  his  struggle  against 
the  Almoravides.  In  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century  the 
Count  of  Portugal  became  a  vassal  of  the  pope  and  agreed 
to  pay  him  four  ounces  of  gold  a  year.  When  in  11 79  the 
pope  added  the  royal  title,  he  received  a  thousand  byzants 
on  the  spot  and  the  annual  payment  was  increased  to  a 
hundred  gold  pieces. 

The  King  of  Aragon,  too,  was  a  papal  vassal  and  since  the 
eleventh  century  had  paid  a  handsome  yearly  tribute. 
Aragon  began  to  extend  its  borders  early  in  the 
twelfth  century,  and  in  1137  it  was  enlarged  by 
the  marriage  of  its  infant  queen  with  Ramon  Berengar, 
Count  of  Barcelona  and  Provence.  This  transformed  Ara- 
gon, hitherto  an  inland  kingdom,  into  a  great  maritime 
power  with  a  long  Mediterranean  coast-line.  Provence 
passed  to  a  French  line  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  Cata- 
lonia or  the  County  of  Barcelona  remained  a  permanent 
part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Aragon  henceforth. 


304        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

The  Almohades  replaced  the  Almoravides  in  Mohamme- 
dan Spain  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  and 
Navas  de  toward  its  close  came  into  hostile  contact  with 
Tolosa  ^Yie  Christian  states.    The  Portuguese  defeated 

them  in  1 184,  but  they  won  a  victory  over  the  King  of 
Castile  in  1195.  The  King  of  Leon  fought  against  his 
Christian  neighbors,  especially  Castile,  and  was  a  secret 
ally  of  the  Moslems.  The  King  of  Navarre,  too,  was  inclined 
to  side  with  the  Moslems  against  his  Christian  neighbors. 
But  Pope  Innocent  III  did  all  he  could  to  arouse  the  Chris- 
tians both  of  the  Spanish  peninsula  and  other  lands  against 
the  Moslems,  and  in  12 12  the  Kings  of  Castile  and  Aragon, 
with  the  lukewarm  aid  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  gained  a  great 
victory  over  a  vast  host  of  Moslems  at  Navas  de  Tolosa  in 
southern  Spain.  This  event  was  soon  followed  by  extensive 
conquests  by  the  Kings  of  Aragon,  Castile,  and  Portugal. 
James  I  of  Aragon  conquered  the  Balearic  Isles  one  after 
another  in  the  years  from  1229  to  1235,  and  in  1238  added 
Valencia  to  his  kingdom.  Meanwhile  Castile  and  Leon  had 
been  again  united  under  one  sovereign,  who  proceeded  to 
capture  Cordova  in  1236  and  Seville  in  1248. 

Within  a  few  years  the  Mohammedans  retained  only  the 
Kingdom  of  Granada,  a  small  fraction  of  the  peninsula. 
Political  extending  along  the  southern  coast  from  Gibral- 

of  °the^Span-  tar  to  somcwhat  east  of  Almeria.  Portugal  had 
ish  peninsula  attained  its  present  boundaries.   Little  Navarre, 

in  the  later  ,  ,    ,       ^        ., 

Middle  Ages  cut  oflf  on  the  south  by  Castile  and  Aragon,  had 
failed  to  expand  at  all.  In  fact,  in  1200,  the  King  of  Castile 
had  taken  from  her  the  provinces  of  Alava  and  Guipuzcoa. 
Roughly  speaking,  Aragon  formed  a  triangle,  bounded  on 
the  north  by  the  Pyrenees,  on  the  east  by  the  Mediterranean 
from  Montpellier  to  beyond  Valencia,  on  the  west  by  Cas- 
tile. The  united  realm  of  Castile  and  Leon  was  the  largest 
in  the  peninsula,  being  a  union  of  earlier  states  like  the 
Asturias  and  Galicia,  and  having  profited  most  by  con- 
quest at  the  expense  of  the  Moslems.  It  occupied  the  cen- 
tral plateau  and  extended  from  the  Atlantic  on  the  north- 
west and  the  Bay  of  Biscay  on  the  north  to  the  valley  of 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  305 

the  Guadalquivir  In  the  south,  touching  the  Mediterranean 
coast  a  Httle  between  Aragon  and  Granada,  and  the  Atlantic 
coast  at  the  mouth  of  the  Guadalquivir  between  Granada 
and  Portugal.  Such  for  over  two  hundred  years  remained 
the  political  geography  of  the  Spanish  peninsula,  until  the 
close  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

After  Henry  I  and  Otto  the  Great  in  the  tenth  century 
checked  the  Invaders  who  had  threatened  the  East  Prankish 
Kingdom  from  north  and  east,  the  Holy  Roman  German 
Emperors  who  succeeded  them  gave  but  slight  expansion 
attention  to  the  problem  of  their  eastern  frontier,  the  twelfth 
They  were  too  occupied  with  Italian  projects,  ^^"^"''^ 
with  the  Investiture  struggle,  and  with  other  problems. 
When  invasions  of  the  Empire  by  the  Slavs  forced  them  to 
interfere,  they  usually  contented  themselves  with  enforcing 
a  vague  recognition  of  their  overlordship  from  the  Slavic 
princes  and  perhaps  a  more  substantial  payment  of  tribute, 
but  they  made  little  effort  to  Christianize  or  to  settle  the 
Slavic  territory.  It  was  therefore  left  to  the  local  lords  of 
the  petty  states  along  the  eastern  border  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  eastward  German  colonization.  On  the  whole,  not 
much  was  accomplished  until  the  twelfth  century.  Then, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Counts  of  Holstein,  of  Albert 
the  Bear,  Count  of  the  North  Mark  (1134-1170),  and  of 
Henry  the  Lion,  Duke  of  Saxony,  a  great  advance  of  the 
German  frontier  was  made  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Oder,  while 
the  Danes  made  haste  to  secure  the  island  of  Riigen  in  the 
Baltic. 

The  previous  Inhabitants  of  the  region  between  the  Elbe 
and  the  Oder,  Baltic  Slavs  in  the  north  and  Sorbs  In  the 
south,  were  for  the  most  part  either  ejected  from  Displace- 
their  lands  or  fell   to  the  position  of  serfs  or  "j^nt  of 
wretched  cottagers  without  any  legal  title  to  the  German 
small  plots  of  land  which  they  occupied.    The  '^^'^"'sts 
Slavs,  whose  wooden  ploughs  merely  scraped  the  surface  of 
the  soil,  had  generally  occupied  only  the  more  easily  culti- 
vated  land,  and   had   left   swamps,   forests,   and  thickets 
unreclaimed.    Now  German  colonists  with  their  superior 


3o6        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

ploughs  entered  the  land,  while  Flemings  and  Hollanders, 
who  had  learned  at  home  the  art  of  reclaiming  fens  and 
morasses,  were  introduced  in  large  numbers  by  the  new  lords 
of  the  soil.  To  get  colonists,  however,  to  settle  the  waste,  it 


German  Xortb-Easttvard  Expansion 

1."n'   t]  Frontier  of  Holy  Rjman.  Empire  before  IGWi  century 
^Oerman  colonization  in  \2t!i  and  I3tk  centuries 


was  necessary  to  offer  them  attractive  terms  and  to  free 
them  from  most  of  the  restrictions  imposed  by  feudal  lords 
upon  their  peasants.  Usually  they  merely  paid  a  moder- 
ate money  rent.  They  received  larger  allotments  of  land 
than  the  average  peasant  had  at  home;  and  in  these  new 
settlements  the  individual's  holdings  were  not  scattered 
about  as  on  the  ordinary  medieval  villa,  but  comprised  one 
large  strip  which  its  holder  was  free  to  cultivate  as  he 
pleased. 

In  1 143  was  founded  by  the  Count  of  Holstein  the  first 
German  city  on  the  Baltic  Sea,  Liibeck,  destined  soon  to  be 
a  great  center  of  trade.  In  1165  the  discovery  of  silver  in 
the  land  of  the  Sorbs  caused  a  great  inrush  of  fortune- 
hunters  and  the  growth  of  the  city  of  Freiberg,  not  far  from 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  307 

modern  Dresden.  But  on  the  whole  towns  did  not  develop 
much  until  the  thirteenth  century.  When  they  did,  the  Slavs 
were  allowed  only  in  certain  streets  and  in  certain  occupa- 
tions. Germans,  on  the  other  hand,  were  attracted  by  ofifers 
of  personal  freedom,  exemption  in  large  measure  from  tolls 
and  other  vexatious  dues,  and  by  grants  of  partial  self-gov- 
ernment. The  result  was  that  especially  in  Mecklenburg 
and  Brandenburg  the  country  was  thoroughly  Germanized. 
Slavic  traditions  and  folk-lore  disappeared  even  among  the 
common  people,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century  more  persons 
speaking  a  Slavic  dialect  could  be  found  in  German  territory 
west  than  east  of  the  Elbe.  In  Mecklenburg,  however,  a 
Slavic  prince  who  had  been  allowed  to  rule  as  a  vassal  of 
Henry  the  Lion  became  the  founder  of  the  present  reigning 
houses  in  both  Duchies  of  Mecklenburg. 

In  the  southeast,  in  the  Mark  of  Austria  and  in  parts  of 
the  Duchies  of  Carinthia  and  Styria  there  had  been  some 
German  colonization  since  the  close  of  the  tenth  Further 
century,  but  the  movement  was  at   its  height  expansion 
there  in  the  late  twelfth  and  the  thirteenth  cen-  eastward 
turies.    In  the  northeast  after  the  twelfth  century  German 
expansion  went  on  beyond  the  Oder  farther  east  in  Pome- 
ranla,  Silesia,  and  Prussia.  The  Slavic  princes  themselves,  in 
Mecklenburg,  Pomerania,  Silesia,  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and 
Poland,  often  called  in  the  superior  German  laborers  as 
settlers;  and  the  frequent  marriage  alliances  of  the  same 
Slavic  princes  with  daughters  of  the  German  noblHty  facili- 
tated the  spread  of  Christianity. 

The  new  religious  orders  of   the  twelfth  century  were 
prominent  In  the  colonization  of  the  northeast.    Norbert, 
founder  of  the   Premonstratensians,   was  from  Coloniza- 
1126  to    1 134  Archbishop  of   Magdeburg,   the  f\^^^ 
ecclesiastical  metropolis  nearest  to  that  frontier,  military 
In  the  later  decades  of  the  twelfth  century  the  °^  ^'^^ 
Cistercians  played  the  greatest  part,  and  their  monastic 
settlements   sometimes    advanced    to    regions   where   the 
power  of  German   lords   had  not  yet  penetrated.   In  the 
thirteenth  century  came  the  military  and  crusading  orders, 


308        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

the  Teutonic  Knights  and  the  Brethren  of  the  Sword,  who 
were  to  make  conquests  far  beyond  the  Vistula. 

Not  long  after  Otto  had  repulsed  the  invasions  of  the 
Hungarians  their  kings  became  Christians  and  tried  to 
Expansion  convcrt  their  people  forcibly  to  the  same  faith 
of  Christian  by  the  aid  of  numerous  clergy  from  western 
Europe  and  knights  from  Germany.  In  the  next 
century  came  a  relapse  of  part  of  the  country  into  pagan- 
ism; but  in  the  twelfth  century  the  Gregorian  reforms  and 
the  Cistercian  monks  revived  Christian  influence.  Hungary 
was  now  a  powerful  state  and  about  iioo  absorbed  Croatia 
and  gained  access  to  the  Adriatic,  and  annexed  the  cities  of 
the  Dalmatian  coast,  which  had  hitherto  owed  allegiance  to 
Constantinople.  By  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  Hun- 
gary had  the  same  religious  and  political  institutions  as  the 
rest  of  western  Christian  Europe,  and  shared  also  in  its 
culture  to  a  large  extent.  The  monks,  who  were  numerous 
in  Hungary  in  the  twelftli  century,  came  from  France.  But 
in  the  second  half  of  that  century  the  Magyars  called  in 
Flemish  and  German  colonists  to  settle  and  defend  Transyl- 
vania or  Siebenbiirgen,  a  debatable  territory  away  over  on 
their  eastern  frontier. 

In  the  East,  as  the  power  of  the  Arabs  and  Bulgarians 
had  declined  in  the  course  of  the  tenth  century,  the  Byzan- 
Byzantine  ^^"^  Empire  had  begun  to  expand  again.  The 
expansion       islands  of  Crete  and  Cyprus,  the  city  of  Antioch, 

about  1000  1  ,  ,        r     r^        •  1     r 

and  a  large  part  ot  Syria,  were  recovered  from 
the  Saracens;  and  the  frontier  was  extended  to  the  upper 
Euphrates.  Farther  north  an  advance  was  made  to  the 
Caucasus  Mountains.  In  Europe,  especially  during  the  reign 
of  Basil  II  (976-1025),  all  Bulgaria  was  brought  under 
Byzantine  rule.  Once  Basil  blinded  fifteen  thousand  Bul- 
garian captives  and  sent  them  home  as  a  warning,  leaving 
one  prisoner  out  of  every  hundred  one  eye  in  order  that 
he  might  serve  the  others  as  a  guide.  Basil's  sister  mar- 
ried the  Prince  of  Russia,  who  thereupon  adopted  Chris- 
tianity. While  the  Serbs  were  allowed  local  autonomy 
under  their  own  rulers,  they  were  forced  to  recognize  the 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  309 

overlordship  of  Constantinople,  by  whose  territories  they 
were  surrounded  on  the  east,  south,  and  southwest.  For 
both  the  politics  and  the  culture  of  Constantinople  at  this 
epoch  our  chief  sources  of  Information  are  the  hundreds  of 
treatises  on  varied  subjects,  the  history,  and  the  letters,  of 
Psellus,  a  prolific  writer  of  the  eleventh  century  who  was 
interested  In  everything  under  the  sun  as  well  as  In  theology. 

In  1057,  after  reigning  at  Constantinople  for  nearly  two 
centuries,  the  Macedonian  dynasty  died  out,  and  for  a 
generation  there  was  confusion  and  anarchy  in  j^jgg  ^f  ^j^^ 
the  Byzantine  Empire.  Meanwhile  the  peren-  ^^^J"^ 
nial  migration  of  Asiatic  nomads  westward  had 
been  renewed  by  the  Turks.  A  branch  of  this  race,  known 
as  the  "Petchenegs"  or  "Patzlnaks,"  had  been  for  some 
time  on  the  lower  Danube.  It  was  to  protect  their  eastern 
frontier  against  this  tribe  that  the  Hungarians  Introduced 
German  settlers  into  Transylvania  in  the  later  twelfth 
century.  Another  branch,  known  as  the  "Seljuk  Turks," 
from  their  legendary  hero-founder,  became  In  the  eleventh 
century  the  ruling  element  in  the  Moslem  world.  After  con- 
quering Persia  they  accepted  Islam  and  entered  the  service 
of  the  Abbassid  caliphs  at  Bagdad.  The  result  was  that  the 
caliph  soon  ceased  to  be  anything  more  than  the  nominal 
religious  head  of  the  Mohammedan  world,  while  a  Turkish 
sultan  held  all  the  military  and  political  power.  The  Seljuks 
spread  into  Syria,  Armenia,  and  Asia  Minor;  In  1071,  at 
Manzlkert  In  Armenia,  they  won  a  decisive  victory  over  the 
Byzantines,  and  soon  had  taken  away  all  of  Constanti- 
nople's Asiatic  territories. 

The  Turks  were  ignorant  and  fanatical  barbarians  like 
the  Almoravldes  and  Almohades,  and  had  a  like  evil  effect 
upon  Arabian  culture.    The  heyday  of  Bagdad,  Effect  of 
like  that  of  Cordova,  as  a  center  of  civilization  Turkish 

f   y".  .1      ^"^6  on 

was  now  over,  and  the  days  of  Constantmople  Arabian 
were  numbered.    It  was  time  for  the  teeming  ^"  ^^^^ 
and  expanding  population  of  feudal  western  Europe  to  take 
up  the  torch  of  civilization.   The  Turks  not  only  showed  no 
bent  for  the  remains  of  Greek,  Persian,  Syrian,  and  Arabian 


3IO        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

arts,  sciences,  and  industries  scattered  through  their  terri- 
tories; they  also  failed  to  reunite  the  Moslems  into  a  politi- 
cal whole.  Various  leaders  broke  away  from  the  control  of 
sultan  and  caliph  and  conquered  independent  principalities 
for  themselves.  This  naturally  led  to  many  wars  between 
rival  Mohammedan  princes. 

For  the  present,  however,  the  Turks  were  none  the  less 
a  pressing  danger  to  Constantinople,  and  when  Alexius 
Alexius  (1081-1118)  firmly  estabhshed   the  Comnenian 

Comnenus  dynasty  on  the  throne,  he  still  found  many  prob- 
lems confronting  him.  Robert  Guiscard,  whose  daughter 
had  married  the  son  of  a  preceding  emperor,  invaded  the 
northern  part  of  the  Greek  peninsula  and  penetrated  as  far 
as  Thessaly.  He  was  then  called  back  to  Italy  to  succor 
Pope  Gregory  VII,  and  in  his  absence  his  forces  were  ex- 
pelled from  Greece.  He  continued  the  war  until  his  death 
in  1085,  however,  but  then  his  son  Bohemond  made  peace 
with  Alexius.  Meanwhile  the  Patzinaks  had  been  invading 
Thrace,  and  it  was  only  after  nine  years  of  war  that  Alexius 
finally  drove  them  out  of  his  empire.  He  was  next  confronted 
by  the  far  more  arduous  task  of  repelling  the  Seljuk  Turks, 
but  in  this  enterprise  he  was  destined  to  receive  assist- 
ance from  vast  armies  of  crusaders  from  western  Europe. 

Our  sources  concerning  the  crusades  are  more  ample  than 
for  any  other  wars  or  migrations  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Besides 
Sources  for  numerous  chronicles  concerning  them,  there  are 
the  crusades  djaries  and  letters  written  by  the  crusaders 
themselves.  There  is  also  a  wealth  of  official  documents 
bearing  in  one  way  or  another  upon  the  crusades  and  the 
states  founded  by  the  crusaders  in  the  East.  There  were 
also  numerous  allusions  to  the  crusades  in  the  popular  litera- 
ture of  the  time.  Yet  many  important  points  are  still  left 
in  dispute;  for  instance,  whether  Alexius  summoned  the 
crusaders  or  not.  Moreover,  the  narrators  of  the  crusades 
introduce  so  many  portents  and  miracles,  and  are  themselves 
so  convinced  that  these  expeditions  were  especially  favored 
by  divine  guidance  and  by  providential  Intervention  at 
critical  moments,  that  their  accounts  sometimes  seem  to 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  311 

belong  more  to  the  realm  of  mysticism  or  romance  than  to 
that  of  sober  history.  One  fears  that  they  may  even  have 
exaggerated  the  losses  and  sufferings  of  the  crusaders  in 
order  to  make  their  victories  seem  the  more  remarkable. 

The  word  "crusade"  is  derived  from  the  practice  of 
"taking  the  cross"  —  after  the  example  and  precept  of 
Christ  —  which  was  adopted  by  those  who  went  Definition 
on  the  First  Crusade  and  was  then  followed  in  °^  ^  crusade 
the  subsequent  expeditions.  The  crusader  wore  a  cross  of 
cloth  upon  his  breast  on  his  way  to  the  Holy  Land;  upon 
his  return  after  fulfilling  his  vow  he  bore  the  cross  upon 
his  back  between  the  shoulders.  A  crusade  has  been  defined 
as  "a  religious  war,  preached  in  the  name  of  the  Church, 
stimulated  by  solemn  grant  of  ecclesiastical  privileges,  made 
by  a  more  or  less  cosmopolitan  army,  and  aiming  either 
directly  or  indirectly  at  the  recovery  of  holy  places."  Or, 
we  may  say  more  specifically  that  the  crusades  were  initiated 
by  the  pope ;  that  remission  of  sins  was  promised  to  sincere 
crusaders;  that  the  various  feudal  states,  monarchies,  and 
city  republics  of  western  Europe  shared  in  the  movement; 
and  that  the  main  object  was  to  recover  Jerusalem  from 
the  Mohammedans. 

The  crusading  movement  was  launched  by  the  Pope 
Urban  II,  in  1095  in  a  speech  before  a  great  concourse  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  bishops,  four  hundred  abbots.  Speech  of 
many  feudal  lords  and  knights,  and  a  multitude  Urban  1 1 
of  the  people  at  a  council  at  Clermont-Farrand 
in  south  central  France.  It  is  possible  that  the  Emperor 
Alexius  had  appealed  to  the  pope  for  aid  against  the  Turks ; 
at  any  rate,  if  he  had  not,  one  of  his  predecessors  had  al- 
ready made  such  an  appeal  to  Gregory  VII.  But  in  either 
case  the  Byzantine  emperor  merely  wished  some  auxiliary 
mercenary  troops  to  help  him  reconquer  Asia  Minor  from 
the  Turks.  On  the  other  hand,  at  Clermont  the  pope 
broached  the  idea  of  an  independent  Western  enterprise, 
having  for  its  chief  aim,  not  to  help  the  Byzantine  Empire, 
but  to  recover  Jerusalem  and  the  holy  places.  The  Turks 
had  taken  Jerusalem  in  1078,  since  when  the  pilgrims  had 


312        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

brought  home  tales  of  ill-treatment  of  themselves  and  of 
the  native  Christians  living  there.  Also  Urban  offered  the 
participants  in  the  crusade,  not  the  wages  of  mercena- 
ries, but  the  hope  of  an  eternal  reward.  The  result  was  that, 
while  in  1074  the  lords  of  western  Europe  had  received 
Gregory's  request  for  troops  to  aid  the  Byzantine  emperor 
rather  coldly,  and  he  himself  had  finally  dropped  the  pro- 
ject, in  1095  Urban's  eloquent  appeal  brought  forth  from 
the  assembled  throng  shouts  of  "  It  is  the  will  of  God,"  and 
within  a  year  hundreds  of  thousands  had  been  persuaded  to 
undertake  the  perilous  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 

There  were  yet  other  reasons  why  so  many  hastened  to 
take  the  cross.  For  a  long  time  Western  Christians  had 
Other  been  in  the  habit  of  making  pilgrimages  to  the 

causes  of  Holy  Sepulcher,  and  of  late  they  had  often  gone 
in  large  numbers  and  armed.  The  crusades  were 
a  further  development  of  this  practice  upon  a  still  larger  and 
more  warlike  scale.  We  have  seen,  too,  that  the  feudal 
noble  had  wandering  and  adventurous  instincts,  that  he 
loved  fighting,  and  that  he  ever  craved  to  gain  new  territory. 
Recently  William  the  Conqueror  had  led  a  host  against 
England  and  Robert  Guiscard  and  his  brother  Roger  had 
invaded  Saracen  Sicily,  in  each  case  with  the  approval  of 
the  pope  and  with  a  consecrated  banner;  while  in  Spain 
many  knights  from  other  lands  had  fought  with  the  Chris- 
tian princes  to  win  lands  from  the  Moslems.  The  taking  of 
Toledo  in  1085  had  been  followed,  however,  by  the  defeat 
of  the  Christians  at  Zalaca  in  1086  by  the  Almoravides. 
Perhaps  the  pope  thought  to  offset  this  repulse  in  the  West 
by  striking  a  blow  against  the  Mohammedans  in  the  East. 
Moreover,  the  princes  of  the  West  were  already  of  their  own 
accord  beginning  to  cast  covetous  eyes  upon  the  East,  as 
the  recent  effort  of  Robert  Guiscard  to  conquer  the  Byzan- 
tine Empire  had  demonstrated.  France  was  now  an  over- 
populated  country  where  there  were  frequent  famines  and 
economic  distress,  but  it  was  also  a  land  overflowing  with 
vigor  and  enterprise.  Many  of  its  knights  would  eagerly 
seize  an  opportunity  to  conquer  new  fiefs  for  themselves  in 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  313 

foreign  parts.  Pope  Urban  himself  was  a  native  of  Cham- 
pagne and  he  proclaimed  the  crusade  in  Auvergne,  another 
region  of  France.  In  the  coast  cities  of  Italy,  too,  were  a 
commercial  enterprise  and  a  growing  sea  power  which  did 
much  to  make  the  crusades  possible.  Indeed,  the  fleets  of 
Genoa,  Pisa,  and  Amalfi  had  already  made  attacks  of  their 
own  upon  the  Saracens  of  Corsica,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  and 
North  Africa. 

But  while  such  political  and  economic  forces  and  worldly 
motives  probably  would  of  themselves  have  resulted  in 
some  sort  of  secular  expeditions  directed  toward  Religious 
the  East,  there  would  have  been  no  crusades  of  the 
without  the  leadership  of  the  pope  and  the  in-  crusades 
fluence  of  the  Church,  without  the  offer  of  indulgences  and 
other  spiritual  benefits  to  those  participating,  and  without 
the  medieval  susceptibility  to  religious  emotion  and  excite- 
ment, and  without  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  to  Christ. 
"Then  said  Jesus  unto  his  disciples,  If  any  man  will  come 
after  me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and 
follow  me."  Such  was  the  true  watchword  of  the  crusader. 
It  is  a  fact  that  many  bad  men  went  on  the  crusades,  — 
beggars,  vagabonds,  outlaws,  criminals,  —  but  some  even 
of  these  were  actuated  in  this  case  by  a  good  motive.  It  is 
true  that  many  who  took  the  crusading  vow  in  a  moment 
of  contrition  and  devotion  afterwards  sullied  their  cause  by 
their  actions  along  the  route.  But  the  fact  remains  that 
for  thousands  the  crusade  was  primarily  a  religious  act, 
and  that  multitudes  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  cause  in 
the  arid  mountains  of  Asia  Minor  or  among  the  hot  sands 
of  Syria,  victims  to  famine,  plague,  and  thirst,  as  well  as 
to  the  swords  of  the  Seljuks,  but,  in  their  own  opinion  and 
in  that  of  the  Church  which  sent  them  forth,  "more  than 
conquerors." 

After  the  council  at  Clermont  Urban  visited  many  other 
places  in  France,   preaching  the   crusade,  and  Participants 
many  other  clergy  did  the  same.   Chief  among  in  the  First 
them  was  Peter  the  Hermit,  who  stirred  espe- 
cially the  common  people,  women  and   children  as  well 


314        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

as  men,  of  central  France  and  the  Rhine  Valley  to  seek  the 
Holy  Land.  William  Rufus,  Philip  I,  and  Henry  IV,  kings 
of  England,  France,  and  Germany  respectively,  were  at 
this  time  all  under  papal  excommunication  and  not  one  of 
them  went  on  the  crusade.  But  the  feudal  nobility  from 
both  northern  and  southern  France  and  from  Norman  Italy 
took  the  cross  with  avidity.  The  pope,  who  was  still  en- 
gaged in  the  investiture  struggle,  sent  a  French  bishop  as 
his  representative. 

The  bands,  made  up  partly  of  simple  pious  folk  and  partly 
of  unruly  vagabonds,  which  Peter  the  Hermit  and  similar 
March  to  popular  preachers  had  gathered,  contained  few 
Asia  Minor  armed  knights  and  either  never  reached  even 
Constantinople  or  were  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Turks  in  Asia 
Minor.  Their  depredations  in  the  countries  of  southeast- 
ern Europe  through  which  they  passed  often  led  the  natives 
to  attack  them.  Or,  if  the  crusaders  were  in  too  great 
force  to  be  attacked,  the  peasants  of  the  country  would 
flee  to  woods  and  mountains  until  they  had  passed  by.  The 
feudal  armies  were  more  thorough  and  took  longer  in 
their  preparations  than  the  ill-organized  bands  which  had 
preceded  them,  and  crossed  the  Balkan  peninsula  to  Con- 
stantinople in  several  contingents  and  by  different  routes. 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon  led  a  great  army  from  northeastern 
France  and  Lorraine  in  a  quiet  march  across  Germany  and 
Hungary,  reaching  Constantinople  just  before  Christmas, 
1096.  The  Duke  of  Normandy,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and 
others  from  northern  France  took  about  the  same  route  as 
the  Normans  of  Italy  under  Bohemond,  whose  march  was  to 
Brindisi  and  then  from  Durazzo  to  Saloniki.  The  knights 
from  southern  France,  under  Raymond  of  Toulouse  and 
the  papal  representative,  crossed  northern  Italy,  and  then 
skirted  the  Adriatic  to  Durazzo  and  had  to  fight  the  Slavo- 
nians on  their  way.  All  these  contingents  arrived  in  the 
course  of  the  spring  of  1097.  There  were  yet  other  leaders 
than  those  mentioned  and  the  feudal  lords  were  not  inclined 
to  take  orders  from  one  another,  so  that  there  was  not 
likely  to  be  much  cooperation  or  maintenance  of  discipline. 


EXPANSION   OF   CHRISTENDOM  315 

In  Bohemond,  however,  they  had  an  able  military  com- 
mander, who,  by  waiting  with  a  reserve  force  of  cavalry  and 
then  making  an  attack  at  the  critical  point  at  the  critical 
moment,  won  most  of  the  battles  in  which  they  engaged 
with  the  Turks. 

Alexius  must  have  been  astounded  when  he  heard  from 
the  pope  that  three  hundred  thousand  men  would  be  on 
their  way  to  Constantinople.  He  was  perhaps  Attitude 
still  more  amazed  when  the  motley  following  Byzantine 
of  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Walter  the  Penniless  emperor 
arrived.  Both  in  their  case  and  that  of  the  better  equipped 
armies  which  arrived  later,  his  policy  was  to  get  them  out  of 
the  city  and  across  the  Straits  into  Asia  as  rapidly  as  possi- 
ble and  before  their  numbers  should  be  too  greatly  swelled 
by  further  arrivals.  In  the  case  of  the  later,  well-organized 
armies  he  also  endeavored  to  have  all  the  leaders  take  an 
oath  of  fealty  to  him  and  agree  to  hold  all  conquests  that 
they  might  make  as  fiefs  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  This 
they  were  naturally  loath  to  do,  and  he  had  to  attack  some 
of  them  and  bribe  others  to  secure  their  oaths,  while  some 
never  took  the  oath.  In  brief,  Alexius'  position  was  that  he 
would  allow  the  crusaders  to  reconquer  for  him  the  territory 
which  he  had  not  been  able  to  prevent  the  Turks  from  tak- 
ing away  from  him,  and  which  he  unaided  would  probably 
have  been  quite  unable  to  recover. 

When  the  various  bodies  of  crusaders  had  finally  joined 
forces  in  Asia  Minor  before  the  walls  of  Nicaea,  not  far  from 
Constantinople,  and  were  just  on  the  point  of  The  taking 
reducing  it,  Alexius  procured  by  secret  negotia-  ^^  ^^cxa. 
tions  that  the  city  should  surrender  to  him  rather  than  to 
the  crusaders,  whom  he  refused  to  admit  within  the  walls, 
although  he  tried  to  satisfy  some  of  the  leaders  with  presents. 
Thus  he  showed  that  he  did  not  trust  the  pledges  which  the 
crusaders  had  recently  made,  and  the  result  was  that  hence- 
forth they  did  not  trust  him.  He  had  been  offended  by  the 
insolent  manners  of  some  of  them  at  his  court  in  the  city, 
and  by  their  plundering  the  country  as  they  marched 
through  his  territories.   They  had  against  him  the  deeper 


3i6        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

grievance  that  instead  of  cooperating  generously  with 
them  in  their  great  enterprise,  he  tried  by  diplomacy, 
bribery,  and  tricks  to  make  use  of  them  for  his  own 
ends.  From  Nicaea  they  marched  on  and  soon  won  a  vic- 
tory in  the  field  over  the  Turks  that  opened  up  to  them 
the  route  across  Asia  Minor.  Alexius  loitered  in  their 
wake,  gathering  up  in  western  and  southern  Asia  Minor 
the  fruits  of  the  victories  which  they  had  won,  and  later 
attempting  to  wrest  from  them  the  territories  which  they 
had  occupied  in  Syria.  Naturally  afterward  relations  be- 
tween the  crusaders  and  the  Byzantine  emperor  were  sel- 
dom cordial. 

After  a  terrible  march  across  Asia  Minor  the  crusaders 
reached  Little  Armenia,  a  Christian  state  founded  by  fugi- 
-pjjg  tives  from  Greater  Armenia,  and  hostile  alike  to 

crusaders  the  Saraccns  and  the  Byzantine  Empire.  As  the 
crusaders  approached  Syria,  the  leaders  began  to 
bethink  them  of  the  territorial  conquests  which  each  might 
make.  One  of  them  left  the  main  army  and  penetrated  east 
of  the  Euphrates  to  Edessa,  where  he  established  a  lord- 
ship of  his  own.  This  was  nevertheless  a  useful  exploit,  as 
Edessa  served  to  protect  Syria  from  attack  from  that  direc- 
tion. The  main  army  laid  siege  to  Antioch  for  seven 
months.  It  finally  fell,  owing  to  the  treachery  of  one  of  the 
garrison  with  whom  Bohemond  had  entered  into  secret 
negotiations,  but  in  return  for  this  service  by  Bohemond 
the  other  leaders  had  to  relinquish  Antioch  to  him,  despite 
their  oaths  to  Alexius  and  their  own  ambitions.  But  imme- 
diately the  Christians  were  themselves  penned  up  in  Anti- 
och by  a  Turkish  army,  which  had  arrived  just  too  late  to 
save  the  city  from  their  excesses.  The  crusading  army  was 
by  now  sadly  depleted  by  famine,  plague,  and  the  desertion 
of  many  who  had  sailed  away  home.  But  the  digging-up  of 
what  was  supposed  to  be  the  lance  that  pierced  the  side 
of  the  crucified  Christ  suddenly  inspired  the  host  with  re- 
newed vigor  and  enthusiasm,  and  the  Turkish  force  was 
driven  off.  But  then  for  several  months  longer  the  crusaders 
tarried  at  Antioch,  recuperating  while  their  leaders  quar- 


3i8        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

reled.  At  last  the  murmurs  of  the  mass  of  the  crusaders 
forced  their  chiefs  to  lead  them  on  to  Jerusalem. 

The  Fatimite  caliph  of  Cairo,  whom  the  crusaders  had 
been  trying  to  obtain  as  an  ally  against  the  Turks,  had 
j^^  recently  captured  Jerusalem  from  the  Seljuks, 

taking  of  but  refused  to  surrender  it  to  the  crusaders, 
jerusaem  Therefore  they  marched  south  against  Jerusa- 
lem, supported  by  the  fleets  of  Genoa  and  Pisa,  which  fol- 
lowed the  coast  and  kept  them  supplied  with  provisions. 
On  July  15, 1099,  the  Holy  City  fell  to  them  after  a  siege  of 
two  months,  although  they  had  but  forty  thousand  men 
left.  After  slaughtering  Saracens  all  day  long  in  the  temple 
precincts,  at  nightfall  the  crusaders,  "sobbing  for  joy," 
paid  their  devotions  at  the  sepulcher  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
Their  object  had  been  gained ;  and  when  we  consider  all  the 
obstacles  and  difificulties  which  they  had  to  surmount,  we 
must  agree  that  despite  its  shortcomings  the  First  Crusade 
was  one  of  the  most  daring  and  brilliantly  successful  mili- 
tary expeditions  recorded  in  history.  The  news  of  the  taking 
of  Jerusalem  was  received  with  boundless  joy  in  Europe, 
and  many  pilgrims  hastened  east  to  the  support  of  their 
fellows.  Unfortunately  most  of  the  reinforcements  were 
massacred  by  the  Turks  in  Asia  Minor. 

Nevertheless,  the  Christians  continued  to  hold  Jerusalem, 
and  with  the  aid  of  the  ships  of  the  Italian  cities  they  soon 
Latin  gained  the  towns  of  the  Syrian  coast.  Godfrey  of 

states  Bouillon,  the  first  ruler  of  Jerusalem,  took  the 

yna  niodest  title.  Defender  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher, 
but  upon  his  death  in  1 100  his  brother  was  made  king.  The 
other  three  principalities  in  Syria  founded  by  the  crusaders, 
Edessa,  Antioch,  and  the  County  of  Tripoli,  which  Raymond 
of  Toulouse  began  to  conquer  in  1102  to  the  south  of  Anti- 
och, soon  became  dependencies  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusa- 
lem, which  extended  its  frontier  south  to  the  Red  Sea.  Thus 
Western  Christendom  had  acquired  a  strip  of  territory  bor- 
dering the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  from  the 
Euphrates  to  Egypt.  It  was,  however,  a  narrow  strip  with 
Turkish  emirs  and  fortresses  lining  its  eastern  frontier. 


EXPANSION  OF   CHRISTENDOM  319 

The  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  important  for  its  trade  as 
well  as  its  holy  places,  especially  so  long  as  it  touched  the 
Red  Sea  waterway  to  the  Far  East  and  also  in-  -pj^^jj. 
tercepted   the   caravan   routes   from   Cairo  to  commercial 
Damascus.    The  Italian  cities  which  aided  the    "^^  '^  ^"^^ 
crusaders  —  Genoa,  Pisa,  and  later  Venice  —  received  quar- 
ters of  their  own   in   coast  towns  and   exemptions  from 
tolls.    In  these  quarters  they  had  their  own  courts;  in  fact, 
such  Italian  trading  settlements  were  practically  colonies 
ruled  by  their  mother  cities. 

Through  the  Assizes  of  Jerusalem,  a  code  of  law  of  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  we  are  well  informed  con- 
cerning the  constitution  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jeru-  The  Assizes 
salem,  which  had  a  form  of  government  that  °^  Jerusalem 
could  be  found  only  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  a  sort  of 
ideal  feudal  state,  as  one  might  expect  from  the  fact  that  a 
feudal  army  had  founded  it.  Just  as  Baldwin  had  seized 
Edessa  for  himself  and  Bohemond  had  taken  Antioch,  so 
the  lesser  lords  of  the  crusading  host  seized  various  strong- 
holds along  the  route  before  Jerusalem  was  reached  and  cap- 
tured. Therefore  the  new-made  king  found  his  vassals  al- 
ready in  possession  of  their  fiefs  and  his  power  considerably 
limited  in  consequence.  Besides  a  central  feudal  court 
there  were  over  a  score  of  feudal  courts  in  the  various  fiefs 
of  the  kingdom.  We  have  seen,  however,  that  the  humbler 
crusaders  could  make  their  wishes  felt  on  occasion,  and  we 
shall  see  in  the  next  chapter  that  this  was  a  period  of  the 
growth  of  towns  and  of  the  acquisition  of  political  rights  by 
townsmen.  Therefore  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  an  inde- 
pendent class  of  burghers  recognized  in  this  new  kingdom 
alongside  of  the  feudal  nobles.  Indeed  a  burgher  might 
rise  to  knighthood,  while  feudal  nobles  were  forbidden  to 
acquire  property  in  the  towns.  There  were  thirty-seven 
local  courts  for  burghers  as  well  as  a  central  court  of  this 
type.  There  were  also  independent  church  courts,  and  the 
military  crusading  orders  came  to  have  large  powers  in  the 
kingdom. 

Not  very  many  Westerners  settled  permanently  in  the 


320        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

East,  and  the  population  remained  for  the  most  part  native 
Population  Syrian  Christians  and  Moslems.  Some  of  the 
feifse!^mili-  newcomers  intermarried  with  the  natives.  Pil- 
tary  orders  grims  arrived  in  goodly  numbers  every  year,  and 
would  perhaps  tarry  to  fight  for  a  year  or  two,  but  seldom 
stayed  for  long.  Indeed,  it  was  difficult  to  get  enough 
troops,  and  the  king  made  much  use  of  native  cavalry.  Two 
new  religious  orders,  however,  whose  members  took  monas- 
tic vows  but  whose  chief  business  was  to  fight,  were  estab- 
lished for  the  defense  of  the  Holy  Land ;  namely,  the  Knights 
Hospitalers,  or  "Poor  Brethren  of  the  Hospital  of  St.  John 
at  Jerusalem,"  —  originally  a  sort  of  medieval  Red  Cross 
organization,  —  and  the  Knights  Templars,  or  Knights  of 
the  Temple.  Magnificent  fortresses,  whose  remains  are  still 
visible,  were  constructed  both  by  the  members  of  these  two 
orders  and  by  the  other  crusaders  in  Syria. 

The  new  lords  of  the  land  soon  lost  their  bloodthirsty 
attitude  toward  the  Mohammedans,  and  made  little  dis- 
Attitud  tinction  of  race  or  creed  in  their  government, 

toward  The  coinage  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  imi- 

^  ^"^  tated  the  Arabic  even  to  the  extent  of  retaining 

verses  from  the  Koran,  until  the  pope  forbade  this.  The 
Westerners  soon  adopted  Oriental  dress  and  ways.  They 
employed  Mohammedan  agricultural  laborers,  physicians, 
and  dancing-girls.  They  sometimes  formed  alliances  with 
Moslems  against  one  another,  like  the  Christian  states  of 
the  Spanish  peninsula.  They  often  came  to  prefer  to  live 
on  terms  of  peace  and  commercial  intercourse  with  their 
Mohammedan  neighbors,  and  so  did  not  always  cooperate 
heartily  with,  nor  cordially  welcome,  the  new  pilgrims  and 
crusaders  who  came  out  eager  to  slaughter  Paynims. 

These  Latin  states  in  Syria  were  not  to  be  a  permanent 
possession  of  Europeans.  In  1144  the  Mohammedans  cap- 
Fall  of  tured  Edessa.  St.  Bernard  took  the  lead  in  preach- 
fhi^SJnd  i^^g  ^  crusade  to  counteract  this,  and  Louis  VII 
Crusade  and  Conrad  III,  Kings  of  France  and  Germany, 
took  the  cross.  Their  armies  started  separately  and  were 
almost  annihilated  in  traversing  Asia  Minor;  the  remnants 


EXPANSION   OF  CHRISTENDOM  321 

that  reached  Syria  failed  to  accomplish  anything.  Those 
who  have  listed  seven  (a  sacred  number)  chief  crusades 
from  among  the  many  expeditions  of  the  sort  have  called 
this  the  Second  Crusade. 

In  1 171  the  rule  of  the  Fatimites  in  Egypt  was  brought  to 
a  close  by  a  young  Moslem  named  Saladin,  who  seized  the 
throne  and  soon  extended  his  power  over  most  of  Saladin  and 
the  Moslem  emirs  to  the  east  of  the  Latin  states  the  Third 

C   I* U S3. of 

of  Syria.  In  11 87  he  took  Jerusalem.  This 
caused  the  Third  Crusade  in  which  three  well-known  mon- 
archs  took  part,  Frederick  Barbarossa,  King  of  Germany 
and  Holy  Roman  Emperor,  Philip  Augustus  of  France,  and 
Richard  the  Lion-Hearted  of  England,  Normandy,  Anjou, 
and  Aquitaine.  Frederick,  who  was  now  well  along  in  years, 
took  the  land  route  via  Constantinople  and  was  drowned  in 
crossing  a  small  stream  in  southern  Asia  Minor.  Most  of  his 
army  thereupon  dispersed. 

Richard  and  Philip  embarked  their  armies  at  Marseilles 
and  Genoa,  and  wintered  in  Sicily.  There  they  began  to 
quarrel  and  Richard  broke  off  his  engagement  with  Philip's 
sister.  At  last  they  set  sail  for  Acre  on  the  Richard 
Syrian  coast,  which  the  Christians  had  been  Coeur  de 
vainly  besieging  for  the  past  two  years.  But 
Richard,  who  was  always  ready  for  adventures,  stopped  to 
conquer  the  important  island  of  Cyprus  and  to  capture  the 
Byzantine  emperor.  In  Cyprus,  too,  he  married  his  new 
fiancee,  Berengaria  of  Navarre,  who  had  already  joined  him 
in  Sicily.  Then  Acre  was  taken,  and  Saladin  agreed  to  re- 
store the  true  cross  and  many  Christian  captives  and  to  pay 
an  indemnity.  But  now  news  came  that  the  Count  of  Flan- 
ders had  died,  and  Philip,  anxious  to  secure  his  territory, 
announced  that  he  was  ill  and  must  return  to  France,  where 
he  was  soon  plotting  to  deprive  Richard  of  his  fiefs  on  the 
Continent.  Richard,  remaining  in  the  Holy  Land,  per- 
formed many  knightly  exploits  and  prodigies  of  valor 
which  made  him  the  hero  of  romances  for  a  long  time  to 
come,  but  failed  to  recover  Jerusalem.  He  won,  however, 
the  respect  of  the  chivalrous  Saladin  who  sent  him  snow  and 


322        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

fruit  when  he  was  sick  with  a  fever.  They  finally  made  a 
truce,  leaving  a  portion  of  the  coast  in  the  hands  of  the 
Christians  and  allowing  pilgrims  free  passage  to  Jerusalem 
for  the  next  three  years.  The  Christians  also  still  held  much 
of  northern  Syria.  On  his  way  home  Richard  fell  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemy,  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor,  Henry  VI, 
and  his  subjects  had  to  pay  a  huge  ransom  to  set  him  free. 

Many  other  crusades  followed.  In  1197  a  German  expe- 
dition took  Beirut,  but  accomplished  little  else.  A  crusade 
End  of  ^^   1 202-1 204  which  was  turned  against  Con- 

crusades  to  stantinople  will  be  described  later  in  another 
connection.  In  12 12  there  was  a  crusading  move- 
ment among  the  children,  whose  innocence  it  was  hoped 
might  prevail  where  sinful  knights  had  failed.  Most  of  these 
bands  of  children  wandered  about  western  Europe  a  while 
and  then  broke  up;  some  came  to  Rome  and  were  sent 
home  by  the  pope;  some  reached  the  Mediterranean  and 
were  disappointed  that  a  dry  path  to  Palestine  did  not  open 
up  through  the  sea  for  them,  as  had  happened  of  old  in  the 
Red  Sea  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  of  Israel.  Some  of 
these  were  induced  to  embark  by  rascally  shipowners,  who 
carried  them  off  to  Mohammedan  lands  and  sold  them  into 
slavery.  The  King  of  Hungary  went  to  Syria  on  crusade  in 
12 1 7,  and  during  the  four  years  following  an  expedition  was 
directed  against  Damietta  in  the  Nile  Delta.  The  Holy 
Roman  Emperor,  Frederick  II,  went  out  in  1228,  and  by 
skillful  diplomacy  with  little  fighting  secured  from  the 
Moslems  the  cession  of  Jerusalem  and  the  country  between 
it  and  the  coast,  and  reconstituted  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusa- 
lem. It  lasted  until  1244,  when  the  Turks  retook  the  Holy 
City.  By  1291  the  Christians  had  lost  Acre,  their  last 
stronghold  in  Syria.  The  Italian  cities,  however,  retained 
their  quarters  and  trading  privileges  even  under  Mohamme- 
dan rule.  Meanwhile  the  last  crusades  of  any  importance 
were  those  of  the  saintly  King  of  France,  Louis  IX,  who 
in  1248  went  to  Egypt,  where  he  was  taken  prisoner  and 
ransomed,  and  in  1270  went  to  Tunis,  where  he  died.  The 
Christian  people  of  western  Europe  did  not,  however,  en- 


EXPANSION   OF  CHRISTENDOM  323 

tirely  drop  the  idea  of  a  crusade.  They  continued  to  think 
and  talk  about  crusades  for  the  next  two  centuries;  many 
popes  had  such  a  movement  at  heart,  and  princes  some- 
times planned  a  crusade.  But  no  great  expedition  directed 
toward  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem  actually  took  place. 

Meanwhile  the  name  and  idea  of  a  crusade  had  been  ex- 
tended to  other  expeditions  than  those  to  the  Mohamme- 
dan East,  as  indeed  the  crusades  against  Con-  other  types 
stantinople  and  Tunis  have  already  shown.  °^  crusades 
When  St.  Bernard  preached  the  Second  Crusade,  he  at  the 
same  time  permitted  the  Saxons  to  engage  in  a  crusade 
against  the  Baltic  Slavs.  Several  bands  of  crusaders  to  the 
East  had  halted  in  Portugal  and  aided  its  monarchs  against 
the  Moslems  in  the  Spanish  peninsula;  and  military  religious 
orders  were  founded  in  Spain  as  well  as  in  the  East.  The 
Teutonic  Knights,  founded  at  Acre  by  Germans  in  1190, 
forty  years  later  transferred  their  activities  to  the  shores  of 
the  Baltic  and  engaged  in  the  conquest  of  the  heathen  Prus- 
sians. In  1208  a  crusade  was  preached  against  the  heretics 
in  southern  France.  Finally,  Pope  Innocent  IV  went  to  the 
length  of  offering  the  privileges  of  crusaders  to  those  who 
would  join  in  his  war  against  an  orthodox  Christian  prince 
and  former  crusader,  Frederick  II.  To  those  joining  his 
crusade  against  Frederick's  successor,  Conrad  IV,  he 
"granted  a  larger  remission  of  sins  than  for  the  voyage  to 
the  Holy  Land,  and  included  the  father  and  mother  of  the 
crusaders  as  beneficiaries." 

This  leads  us  back  to  the  theme  of  the  privileges  granted 
to  crusaders.  Urban  II  at  Clermont  had  simply  decreed 
that  "if  any  one,  through  devotion  alone  and  not  Privileges  of 
for  the  sake  of  honor  or  gain,  goes  to  Jerusalem  crusaders 
to  free  the  church  of  God,  the  journey  itself  shall  take  the 
place  of  all  penance."  In  subsequent  crusades  an  increasing 
number  of  material  privileges  had  been  offered  to  induce 
men  to  take  the  cross,  such  as  a  respite  from  debts  and  law 
suits,  permission  to  mortgage  their  lands  without  the  con- 
sent of  their  lords,  and  the  protection  of  the  Church  for  their 
families  and  property  during  their  absence. 


324        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

As  wars  the  crusades  were  unusually  expensive  and  de- 
structive for  those  times.  The  loss  of  life  was  enormous,  but 
Results  of  perhaps  served  to  remedy  the  problem  of  over- 
the  crusades  population  in  France.  Whether  this  great  sacri- 
fice of  blood  and  treasure  checked  to  a  great  extent  the 
spread  of  Mohammedanism,  and  whether  it  saved  or  weak- 
ened the  Byzantine  Empire  at  Constantinople,  are  disputed 
questions.  But  we  may  note  that  hardly  had  the  last  Chris- 
tian fortress  in  Syria  fallen  than  the  Turks  began  to 
threaten  Constantinople  again  from  Asia  Minor.  It  thus 
seems  as  if  Western  Christendom,  by  taking  the  offensive, 
had  held  back  Islam  in  the  East  for  two  centuries.  The 
crusades  increased  the  prestige  of  the  pope  and  the  influence 
of  the  Church,  and  show  how  religion  colored  every  side  of 
medieval  life.  The  crusades  seem  on  the  whole  to  have 
weakened  the  feudal  nobility,  many  of  whom  impoverished 
themselves  in  order  to  go  on  the  crusades  or  neglected  their 
fiefs  by  long  periods  of  absence.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
association  of  so  many  knights  in  these  expeditions  stimu- 
lated the  social  side  of  feudalism  and  developed  greatly  the 
usages  of  feudalism,  such  as  tournaments,  heraldic  devices 
and  coats  of  arms,  family  names  and  genealogies.  The  new 
military  orders  and  the  w4de  currency  given  to  the  exploits 
and  adventures  of  the  crusaders  abroad  added  a  new 
glamour  and  dignity  to  knighthood. 

The  crusaders  were  travelers  to  strange  and  far  countries 
as  well  as  soldiers,  and  those  who  lived  to  return  brought 
back  with  them  new  things,  words,  and  ideas.  We  must 
remember,  however,  that  what  any  one  gets  out  of  a  trip 
abroad  depends  a  great  deal  upon  himself.  He  may  see 
splendid  works  of  art  or  strange  inventions  without  appre- 
ciating them.  If  the  crusades  served  as  an  education  to  the 
Westerners,  it  was  because  they  were  no  longer  ignorant 
barbarians.  We  must  also  remember  that  Western  Chris- 
tians could  borrow  from  A^rabian  civilization  in  Spain  and 
Sicily  without  going  to  distant  Syria.  Probably  the  most 
lasting  result  of  the  crusades  was  the  trade  which  the  Italian 
cities  established  with  the  Orient,  and  this  might  well  have 


EXPANSION   OF  CHRISTENDOM  325 

developed  without  any  wars  at  all.  The  crusades,  however, 
at  least  served  to  give  European  society  a  shaking-up. 
Holders  of  fiefs  died  in  Asia  Minor  and  their  lands  passed 
to  other  lords.  Crusaders  sold  their  property  and  borrowed 
money  and  bought  supplies  and  hired  ships  and  took  out 
letters  of  credit  on  Italian  or  Jewish  bankers  in  Syrian  ports. 
All  this  brought  money  and  land  and  goods  into  circulation, 
and  made  more  business,  and  caused  activity  and  change 
and  bustle  and  excitement.  The  crusades  were  in  a  sense 
a  failure,  but  there  was  enterprise  behind  them,  and  enter- 
prise is  a  good  thing  of  itself. 

We  shall  next  turn  to  two  even  greater  movements  at 
home,  which  accompanied  the  expansion  of  Christendom 
abroad ;  namely,  the  rise  of  towns  in  western    other  great 
Europe,  and  a  great  development  of  art,  litera-    mov^rnents 
ture,  and  learning  through  the  twelfth  and  thir-    twelfth 
teenth  centuries.  These  two  parallel  movements    besideTthe 
were  not  caused  by  the  crusades,  but  were,  like    crusades 
the  crusades,  symptoms  and  products  of  a  new  energy  and 
enterprise  and  life  and  civilization  in  the  society  of  western 
Europe. 


326        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

The  Normans  in  the  South. 

Haskins,  The  Normans  in  European  History,  chap.  vii. 

German  Expansion  to  the  Northeast. 
Fisher,  Medieval  Empire,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-24. 

German  Expansion  to  the  Southeast. 
Fisher,  op.  cit.,  pp.  25-54. 

A  Charter  granted  to  German  Colonists. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.   572-73; 
or  Ogg,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  330-33. 

Pilgrimages  before  the  Crusades. 

Beazley,  Dawn  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  11,  pp.  122-31. 

The  Speech  of  Urban  II  at  Clermont. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,    selections 
278-80  (pp.  512-21,  omitting  from  page  514  to  the  middle  of  page  516). 

1.  Of  the  three  appeals  to  a  crusade  which  is  the  most  stirring? 

2.  List  the  arguments  for  a  crusade  put  forward  in  each  selection. 

3.  What  essential  features  of  a  crusade  are  not  referred  to  in  the 
letter  of  Gregory  VII? 

Ibn  Jubair's  Account  of  his  Journey  through  Syria, 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  257-68. 

1.  Cite  some  passages  to  show  that  the  writer  is  a  Moslem. 

2.  Cite  some  passages  showing  prejudice  against  Christians. 

3.  What  is  his  estimate  of  Christian  rule  in  Syria? 

4.  Cite  some  passages  to  illustrate  the  association  of  Moslems  and 
Christians  in  daily  life. 

5.  What  two  Christian  ports  in  Syria  impress  the  writer  most  and 
how  does  he  compare  them? 

Character  and  Results  of  the  Crusades. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  248-56. 

Stories  of  the  Crusades. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  269-76. 

Essays  on  the  Crusades. 

Munro,  Prutz,  and  Diehl;  published  by  the  International  Quarterly. 

The  Children's  Crusade. 

Luchaire,  Social  France  (translated  by  Krehbiel),  pp.  25-28. 

Original  Sources  concerning  the  Crusades. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  l,  chap.  xv. 
Translations  and  Reprints  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  I,  no.  2, 
Urban  II  and  the  Crusaders;  vol.  I,  no.  4,  Letters  of  the  Crusaders; 
vol.  Ill,  no.  I,  The  Fourth  Crusade. 

The  Last  Crusades  in  the  East;  Their  Results  (i  147-1270). 
Duruy,  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap.  xx. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   RISE   OF   TOWNS   AND   GILDS 

As  the  decline  of  the  ancient  city-state  had  sounded  the 
knell  of  classical  culture,  so  the  revival  of  town  life  was  a 
chief  factor  in  medieval  civilization.  The  de-  Revival  of 
structive  work  of  war  and  the  productive  toil  of  ^°^"  ^'^^ 
agriculture  were  the  chief  occupations  in  the  early  Middle 
Ages  and  the  basis  of  feudal  society.  There  were  a  few  scat- 
tered industries  in  monastery  and  manor,  but  really  skilled 
artisans  had  to  be  sought  from  Constantinople.  What 
towns  there  were  in  southern  Italy  or  on  the  Mediterranean 
coasts  of  France  and  Spain  owed  their  existence  to  their 
trading  relations  with  Constantinople.  In  most  regions  an 
occasional  market  or  fair  sufhced  for  the  business  life  of  a 
large  area.  Roman  municipal  institutions  had  given  way  to 
the  rule  of  bishops  or  of  feudal  lords,  and  the  people  had  to  a 
large  extent  lost  even  their  personal  freedom.  But  after  the 
break-up  of  Charlemagne's  empire  and  the  renewed  bar- 
barian invasions,  Western  Christendom  began  to  increase  in 
population,  to  develop  industries  and  commerce  and  cities" 
and  a  free  working-class  of  its  own.  Indeed,  it  is  thought 
that  the  very  incursions  of  Northmen  and  Hungarians 
caused  the  building  of  protecting  walls  about  settlements 
and  so  contributed  to  the  growth  of  towns. 

But  it  is  difficult  to  speak  with  any  certainty  concerning 
town  life  in  the  West  before  the  twelfth  century,  since  we 
do  not  possess  records  until  then.  As  a  matter  of  ^ 

f  .    f  .         .  .,  .  Sources 

fact,  our  mformation  is  scanty  until  some  time 
after  that.  Consequently,  when  first  we  begin  to  hear  of  the 
towns,  the  gilds,  and  the  burghers,  they  are  often  already 
full-fledged  and  their  origins  are  lost  in  a  dim  past.  For  a  long 
time  most  writers  were  clergymen  and  were  little  interested 
in  business  and  commerce  except  as  the  monasteries  kept 
records  of  their  own  property.   Nor  had  the  authors  of 


328        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

literature  for  the  knightly  and  feudal  class  much  inclina- 
tion to  dwell  upon  the  affairs  of  despised  traders  and  work- 
ingmen  who  had  struggled  up  from  serfdom.  It  is  only 
when  the  townsmen  become  well  educated  enough  to  speak 
for  themselves  or  rich  enough  to  hire  writers  that  we  get 
adequate  records  of  their  life. 

To  some  extent  medieval  towns  occupied  the  sites  of 
previous  Roman  colonies  and  municipia,  either  because  the 
_         .  situation  was  so  advantageous  that  a  town  was 

Town  sites  .  .11 

sure  to  be  located  there  m  any  period  or  because 
a  portion  of  the  Roman  town  had  remained  inhabited 
through  the  early  medieval  period.  But  many  Roman  sites 
were  now  abandoned  and  many  new  urban  centers  grew  up 
about  castle,  monastery,  and  other  points  favorable  to  the 
changing  requirements  of  trade  and  industry.  For  example, 
many  of  the  large  cities  of  France  to-day  were  places  of 
importance  in  Roman  Gaul,  but  not  more  than  eighty  out 
of  five  hundred  French  towns  in  all  can  be  so  identified.  In 
medieval  England  towns  were  larger  and  more  numerous 
than  in  Roman  Britain,  while  beyond  the  Rhine  and  about 
the  Baltic  cities  arose  where  once  barbarians  had  roamed. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  regions  where  cities  had  flourished 
under  the  Roman  Empire  failed  to  revive  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  especially  in  the  Balkan  peninsula,  including  even 
Greece,  home  of  the  city-state,  and  North  Africa,  which  under 
the  repeated  attacks  of  wild  tribes  from  the  Sahara  became 
little  different  from  the  desert.  To  the  east  and  west  of  this 
ruined  area  the  Arabs  had  established  prosperous  cities  like 
Cairo  and  Bagdad  in  the  East,  and  Cordova  and  Seville  in 
Spain;  but  these  were  now  menaced  by  the  advance  of 
Turks  and  Almohades,  and  the  future  lay  with  the  cities  of 
the  Christian  West.  To-day  many  of  these  in  turn,  if  their 
sites  have  not  been  actually  abandoned,  survive  with  a 
much  diminished  population  and  amount  of  business,  since 
machinery  and  factories,  steam  and  railroads,  and  changes 
in  trade  routes  and  in  political  boundaries  and  capitals 
have  turned  men  and  money  to  other  centers.  Considera- 
tions of  defense  seldom  determine  the  site  of  a  modern  city, 


THE   RISE  OF  TOWNS  AND   GILDS  329 

but  were  paramount  in  the  Middle  Ages  when  a  town  must 
not  be  too  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  invaders,  pirates,  or 
robber  barons.  Towns  were  therefore  often  located  upon 
hills  like  castles.  In  any  case  they  were  enclosed  by  walls 
and  could  be  entered  only  through  guarded  gates  which 
were  shut  at  night.  Rivers  were  then  more  important  paths 
of  trade  than  now,  and  many  towns  were  located  along  their 
banks,  especially  at  fords,  ferries,  or  bridges. 

In  the  declining  Roman  Empire  and  the  early  Middle 
Ages  men  had  sought  protection  and  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence from  others  and  had  commended  them-  Emancipa- 
selves  to  the  great  and  powerful.  Now  an  oppo-  tion  of  the 
site  tendency  becomes  evident.  Men  feel  able  to 
feed,  clothe,  and  defend  themselves,  and  are  seeking  free- 
dom from  their  lords.  Individual  serfs  run  away  from  their 
masters  and  entire  communities  rise  in  revolt  or  bargain 
with  their  lords  for  their  collective  freedom.  There  are 
traces  of  this  movement  even  in  the  tenth  century.  In  997 
the  peasants  of  Normandy  made  an  organized  though  in- 
effectual revolt  against  their  masters,  and  a  few  years  later 
the  Holy  Roman  Emperor,  Otto  III,  issued  a  law  to  check 
the  attempts  of  the  unfree  classes  to  escape  from  their 
servile  position.  As  the  expansion  of  Western  Christendom 
brought  new  soil  under  cultivation  and  the  owners  of  these 
new  estates  offered  favorable  terms  to  attract  tenants  and 
labor,  the  lords  of  the  older  manors  found  it  advisable  to  im- 
prove the  lot  of  their  peasants  if  they  wished  to  keep  them. 
They  also  seem  to  have  discovered  that  ambitious  free- 
men work  better  than  disheartened  slaves.  In  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  the  practice  spread  rapidly  among 
manorial  lords  of  emancipating  their  serfs  in  return  for  a 
considerable  lump  payment  by  the  peasantry.  In  fact,  so 
attractive  to  the  lords  was  this  prospect  of  the  immediate 
payment  of  a  large  amount  that  they  sometimes  forced 
charters  of  emancipation  upon  communities  of  serfs  who 
had  not  asked  for  them. 

The  granting  of  such  a  charter  did  not  mean  that  the 
peasants  would  no  longer  work  for,  and  pay  rents  to,  the 


330        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

lord.  But  now  such  rents  and  services  were  stated  and  fixed 
in  the  charter ;  the  lord  could  not  henceforth  exert  arbitrary 
power  over  the  peasants  and  demand  payments  and  labor 
from  them  at  will.  They  could  move  about  freely,  marry 
outside  the  manor  without  paying  fines,  and  perhaps  sell  or 
bequeath  their  land.  Usually,  however,  they  continued  to 
attend  the  manorial  court.  Finally,  we  must  remember 
that  many  peasants  were  not  emancipated,  especially  in 
the  less  progressive  portions  of  Europe,  and  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  some  peasants  had  never  sunk  to  serfdom,  but 
had  remained  free  through  the  early  Middle  Ages. 

If  peasants  whose  lands  lay  exposed  to  ravaging  and 
plunder  could  thus  acquire  at  least  some  measure  of  free- 
The  towns  dom,  the  inhabitants  of  walled  towns  would 
offer  a  fuller  obviously  acquire  far  more.  Their  denser  popu- 
lation enabled  them  to  organize  more  effectually ; 
their  trade  and  industry  gave  them  more  money  with  which 
to  buy  concessions  from  the  lord.  Indeed,  it  was  the  exist- 
ence of  walled  towns,  where  runaway  serfs  could  find  a 
hiding-place  and  an  opportunity  to  engage  in  other  than 
agricultural  labor,  that  helped  to  make  possible  the  emanci- 
pation movement  among  the  peasantry. 

Gradually  there  grew  up  in  the  West  a  native  merchant 
class,  men  who  devoted  most  of  their  time  to  buying  and 
Rise  of  a  selling.  They  found  it  advisable  to  band  to- 
merchant        gether  for  mutual  support  and  protection  and  to 

diss*  hcfixscs 

form  withm  each  town  a  merchant  gild  or  hanse 
of  all  the  business  men  —  a  sort  of  medieval  chamber  of 
commerce.  Since  such  an  association  increased  the  town's 
prosperity,  the  lord  was  generally  willing  to  grant  its  mem- 
bers some  special  privileges,  such  as  personal  liberty,  ex- 
emption from  agricultural  labor  and  payments,  freedom  to 
leave  the  manor  for  purposes  of  trade,  protection  on  their 
journeys,  and  trading  privileges  in  other  places  under  the 
lord's  control.  In  return  they  would  make  payments  to 
him  from  their  business  profits  instead  of  rendering  their 
previous  services.  In  the  twelfth  century,  when  Normandy 
and  England  were  under  the  same  ruler,  the  merchants  of 


THE   RISE  OF  TOWNS  AND  GILDS  331 

Rouen  were  granted  a  practical  monopoly  of  trade  between 
Normandy  and  Ireland  and  several  special  trading  con- 
cessions in  England. 

Other  unions  for  economic  purposes  which  accompanied 
and  assisted  the  revival  of  town  life  were  the  gilds  of  arti- 
sans. By  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century  Gilds  of 
many  were  already  completely  organized  in  artisans 
France  and  Italy  and  were  in  existence  in  Germany  and 
England,  although  not  so  numerous  and  important  in  those 
lands  until  the  next  century.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  of  them 
were  survivals  from  the  hereditary  gilds  of  the  declining 
Roman  Empire.  They  may  have  grown  out  of  servile 
groups  of  artisans  on  great  estates  or  they  may  have  origi- 
nated only  with  the  revival  of  town  life.  Then  their  formation 
was  facilitated  by  the  clustering  together  in  the  same  street  of 
men  of  the  same  occupation,  either  because  the  location  was 
convenient  for  their  work  or  to  watch  one  another.  This 
jealous  competition  gradually  changed  to  harmonious  co- 
operation in  the  prices  and  quality  of  goods  sold  and  in  car- 
ing for  the  poor  and  sick,  the  widows  and  orphans,  in  one 
another's  families. 

In  a  gild  there  were  apprentices,  journeymen,  and  master- 
workmen.  The  apprentices  were  boys  learning  the  trade 
under  the  guidance  of  a  master-workman  in  Gild 
whose  house  they  lived  and  worked  without  organization 
wages  for  several  years.  Indeed,  at  the  start  the  lad's 
parents  had  as  a  rule  to  pay  the  master  a  sum  of  money ;  but 
at  the  close  of  the  boy's  apprenticeship  he  often  received  a 
parting  donation  from  his  master  or  sometimes  was  paid 
wages  during  the  latter  years  of  his  term  of  service.  The 
time  of  apprenticeship  varied  from  three  to  eleven  years 
according  to  the  difficulty  of  the  craft.  When  this  term  had 
been  completed,  one  became  a  journeyman  and  worked  for 
wages  under  the  master-workmen.  The  English  word 
"journeyman"  comes  from  the  French  journee,  referring  to 
the  fact  that  they  often  worked  by  the  day,  but  the  French 
name  for  such  artisans  is  ouvriers,  or  valets.  Finally  many 
journeymen  became  full-fledged  members  of  the  gild  or 


332        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

master- workmen.  To  attain  this  stage  it  was  usually  neces- 
sary to  prove  one's  skilled  workmanship  by  passing  an  ex- 
amination or  producing  a  "masterpiece,"  and  to  have 
saved  enough  money  to  be  able  to  set  up  in  business  for 
one's  self. 

While  the  master-workman  was  an  employer  of  labor, 
since  he  had  journeymen  and  apprentices  under  him,  he 
Compari-  ^^so  belonged  to  the  laboring  class  because  he 
son  with  j^3^(j  himself  passed  through  the  preliminary 
industrial  Stages  and  because  he  usually  continued  to  work 
organization    ^^  j^j^  ^^^^^  ^^^^^  ^j^j^  j^j^  employees.  He  further 

differed  from  a  modern  employer  in  that  he  employed  but  a 
handful  of  men  in  his  own  house,  and  was  constantly  in 
close  personal  relations  with  them,  instead  of  employing 
large  numbers  under  foremen  in  a  factory.  The  entire  in- 
dustrial situation  was  different  from  that  of  modern  times; 
there  was  not  the  same  cleavage  between  capital  and  labor, 
for  there  was  not  much  capital,  nor  between  employer  and 
employee;  and  the  craft  gilds  only  faintly  resembled  our 
labor  unions. 

The  members  of  a  gild  elected  officials,  enacted  statutes, 
had  a  court  to  settle  their  own  disputes  and  a  common 
Gild  treasury  to  which  all  made  contributions.  One 

regulations  ^f  their  chief  concerns  was  to  maintain  a  com- 
mon standard  of  "good  and  honest  workmanship"  in  the 
output  of  every  member.  Since  they  worked  by  hand  and 
usually  made  a  complete  article  and  finished  product  in- 
stead of  merely  feeding  a  machine  or  attending  to  some  stage 
in  the  manufacture  of  a  bolt  or  shoe,  the  medieval  artisans 
took  a  personal  pride  in  the  artistic  quality  of  their  work. 
This  feeling  was  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the  workman 
usually  sold  his  product  direct  to  the  consumer  and  so 
could  be  held  personally  responsible  for  any  defects.  Mem- 
bers of  a  gild  charged  the  same  price,  since  the  quality  of 
their  goods  was  supposedly  identical  and  since  the  organiza- 
tion often  supplied  the  raw  materials  at  cost  price  to  its 
members.  Moreover,  the  ideal  then  prevailed  of  a  just 
price,  that  a  workman  should  charge  for  his  manufactures 


THE  RISE  OF  TOWNS  AND   GILDS  333 

only  enough  to  recompense  him  for  the  cost  of  the  raw 
material  and  to  provide  a  decent  wage  for  his  time  and 
labor.  As  most  workmen  sold  direct  to  the  consumers  and 
towns  were  small  and  individuals  well  known,  this  ideal 
was  comparatively  easy  to  enforce.  It  was  strongly  sup- 
ported by  public  opinion,  and  butchers  or  fishmongers  who 
tried  to  elevate  prices  without  necessity  were  liable  to  find 
themselves  in  serious  trouble.  Hours  of  labor  were  regu- 
lated by  the  gilds,  and  as  a  rule  the  medieval  artisan  had 
a  long  working  day,  far  exceeding  the  present  eight-hour 
standard.  But  besides  Sundays  there  were  numerous  reli- 
gious holidays,  in  fifteenth-century  France  as  many  as  fifty 
a  year.  It  was  usual  for  the  gilds  to  restrict  the  number  of 
their  apprentices,  partly  because  a  master-workman  could 
not  teach  the  trade  as  well  to  a  number  of  boys  as  he  could 
to  one  or  two,  partly  because  the  members  did  not  wish  to 
admit  more  men  to  the  exercise  of  their  craft  than  employ- 
ment and  a  sufficient  livelihood  could  be  found  for.  In  most 
towns  only  gild  members  could  engage  in  those  occupations 
which  were  represented  by  gilds,  and  articles  made  outside 
the  town  were  heavily  taxed  before  they  could  be  sold  within 
its  limits.   In  short,  the  gilds  were  protected  industries. 

The  gild  system  was  not  universally  adopted,  just  as  all 
the  land  was  not  divided  into  fiefs  and  manors.  In  Brittany 
and  central  France,  for  example,  it  took  little  Number 
hold,  and  some  large  towns  of  southern  France,  tance"of°'^ 
like  Lyons,  Narbonne,  and  Bordeaux,  had  no  the  gilds 
gilds.  In  such  cases,  however,  the  town  governments  regu- 
lated the  various  crafts  and  trades  in  much  the  way  that 
gilds  did  elsewhere.  There  were  still  other  parts  of  France 
where  gilds  existed,  but  where  it  was  possible  for  a  laborer 
to  exercise  his  craft  without  joining  the  gild.  Furthermore, 
not  all  occupations  in  a  town  necessarily  formed  gilds. 
Crafts  in  which  there  were  not  enough  workmen  engaged 
in  that  town  to  form  a  gild  might  either  remain  unorganized 
or  attach  themselves  for  the  sake  of  protection  and  associa- 
tion to  a  gild  representing  another  trade  somewhat  similar 
to  their  own  craft.    The  number  and  size  of  the  gilds  varied 


334        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

greatly  in  different  places.  Florence,  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lous of  medieval  cities,  had  only  twenty-one  gilds,  but  they 
were  very  influential  in  town  affairs.  On  the  other  hand,  by 
1500  Hamburg  had  a  hundred,  Cologne  eighty,  and  Lubeck 
seventy. 

The  number  of  crafts  in  a  medieval  town,  considering  its 
relatively  small  population,  was  often  surprisingly  large 
Medieval  and  indicates  a  minute  specialization  among  the 
industries  artisans.  Sometimes  an  entire  gild  devoted  itself 
exclusively  to  the  manufacture  of  a  single  part  of  a  suit  of 
armor,  such  as  the  helmet  or  hauberk.  One  gild  might  make 
harness  and  another  polish  it.  Metal-workers  in  general 
were  minutely  subdivided.  At  Paris,  for  example,  where  at 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  from  four  to  six  thousand 
persons  were  enrolled  in  tax  lists  as  engaged  in  mechanical 
arts,  we  find  farriers,  cutlers,  locksmiths,  men  who  make 
handles  for  knives,  coppersmiths,  beaters  of  brass,  beaters 
of  tin,  workers  in  tin,  wire-drawers,  makers  of  copper  lamps, 
makers  of  seals,  makers  of  nails  and  rivets,  makers  of  pins, 
makers  of  buckles,  makers  of  clasps,  and  so  on.  The  manu- 
facture of  woolen  and  linen  goods  occupied  a  great  many 
men  in  the  Middle  Ages;  others  manufactured  hemp,  flax, 
rope,  and  thread;  tanners  and  furriers  were  numerous;  a 
smaller  number  was  engaged  in  making  silks  and  other 
fabrics.  There  were  special  gilds  for  particular  articles  of 
clothing,  such  as  tailors,  hatters,  glovemakers,  beltmakers, 
shoemakers,  cobblers,  slipper-makers,  stocking-knitters,  ho- 
siers, button-makers,  sheathmakers,  comb-manufacturers. 
Then  there  were  the  various  dealers  in  articles  of  food,  in 
beverages,  and  in  spices.  There  were  carpenters,  masons, 
plasterers,  mortar-makers,  potters,  porringer-makers,  glass- 
makers,  beadmakers,  jewelers,  goldsmiths,  makers  of  gold 
thread  and  gold  leaf,  workers  in  wax,  toymakers,  and  vari- 
ous other  artisans  and  artists. 

But  the  gilds  were  important  in  social  and  political  as 
well  as  in  industrial  and  economic  life,  as  indeed  is  shown  by 
their  power  in  town  politics  and  the  mystery  plays  which 
some  of  them  presented  for  the  general  entertainment.    We 


THE   RISE  OF  TOWNS  AND   GILDS  335 

turn  now  again  to  the  social  and  political  aspects  of  town 
life.    Medieval  men  were  fond  of  all  sorts  of  soci-  other 
eties  and  founded  them  not  only  for  business  popular 

,         r  1'    •  1  M         1  •  associations 

purposes,  but  tor  religious,  philanthropic,  and  so- 
cial reasons.  These  brotherhoods,  as  they  were  called,  usually 
each  had  a  patron  saint  whose  day  was  celebrated  both  by 
religious  services  and  by  banquets  and  social  gatherings. 
The  members  helped  one  another  in  case  of  need ;  attended 
the  baptisms  and  marriages  and  funerals  in  their  associates' 
families ;  and  paid  for  masses  to  be  said  for  their  souls  after 
death.  Indeed,  the  associations  of  merchants  and  the  indus- 
trial corporations  usually  had  these  features  too.  Such  broth- 
erhoods also  sometimes  had  a  concealed  political  character 
and  under  the  cover  of  social  and  religious  meetings  hatched 
schemes  to  win  concessions  or  liberty  from  their  lords. 

Such  particular  societies,  then,  often  prepared  the  way  for 
a  more  general   organization   representing  the  town  as  a 
whole.  Or  the  emancipation  of,  or  grant  of  privi-   Movement 
leges  to,  some  particular  group  of  merchants  or  toward 
artisans  by  the  lord  was  often  followed  by  con-   independ- 
cessions  to  all  the  townsmen.    Sometimes  the  ^"^^ 
townspeople,  forming  a  commune  or  union  of  the  whole  com- 
munity, succeeded  in  throwing  off  the  rule  of  the  lord  en- 
tirely and  became  a  self-governing  and  independent  unit  in 
the  midst  of  feudal  society  and  feudal  states.   The  rise  of 
towns  reached  its  height  at  different  periods  in  different 
parts  of  Europe.  The  degree  of  freedom  and  self-government 
gained  by  the  townsmen  and  the  forms  under  which  they 
exercised  it  also  varied  in  different  places.  Therefore,  in  the 
two  following  chapters  we  shall  consider  first  the  cities  of 
Italy  and  then  those  of  lands  beyond  the  Alps.    In  the  re- 
mainder of  this  chapter  we  may  note  a  few  more  character- 
istics of  medieval  town  life  in  general. 

The  medieval  towns  had  a  considerable  influence  upon  the 
development  of  European  law,  first  through  their  Laws  of 
local  customs  and  second  through   the  growth  ^^^  ^'^'^^ 
of  the  law  merchant  in  the  Mediterranean  cities.     Every 
town,  especially  if  it  was  self-governing  and  had  a  court  of 


336        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

its  own,  had  its  own  customs,  its  own  set  of  penalties  for 
offenses,  its  particular  methods  of  court  procedure,  and  its 
local  legislation  and  ordinances  prescribing  how  much  jew- 
elry and  how  splendid  raiment  its  citizens  might  or  must 
not  wear,  how  expensive  and  showy  funerals  might  be,  what 
prices  shopkeepers  might  charge,  what  should  be  done  with 
persons  who  sold  short  weight  or  used  measures  with  false 
bottoms  or  peddled  rotten  fish.  Cities  sometimes,  however, 
copied  one  another's  laws  as  well  as  charters,  and  in  such 
instances  knotty  cases  might  be  referred  back  for  decision 
to  the  courts  of  the  city  whence  the  laws  had  been  borrowed. 
The  laws  of  some  German  towns  were  carried  eastward  by 
colonists  far  into  Poland  and  Hungary.  But  on  the  whole 
the  town  courts  and  customs  added  further  variety  and  con- 
fusion to  the  chaos  of  courts  feudal  and  ecclesiastical  and 
manorial  and  royal  which  already  existed. 

Town  life,  especially  if  industry  and  commerce  and  bank- 
ing develop  extensively,  requires  a  more  elaborate  system  of 
The  law  laws  than  will  suffice  for  persons  living  a  simple 

merchant  agricultural  existence  and  not  moving  about 
much  from  place  to  place.  Hence  it  was  that  lords  early 
found  it. advisable  to  make  special  provisions  for  merchants. 
Eortthje  sea,  too,  it  is  necessary  to  have  somewhat  different 
rules  of  law  than  for  the  land.  The  law  merchant  was  the 
customs  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  worked  out  by  the  cities 
of  Italy,  Spain,  and  southern  France  engaged  in  trade  in  its 
waters.  Some  of  its  provisions  perhaps  dated  back  to  the 
days  when  Babylon  had  been  the  commercial  center  of  the 
world.  It  later  had  influence  upon  the  admiralty  courts  of 
England,  and  from  it  come  those  parts  of  modern  law  deal- 
ing with  trademarks,  the  protection  of  a  firm's  name, 
agency,  brokerage,  and  methods  of  bookkeeping.  This  law 
was  also  applied  to  a  large  extent  at  inland  fairs. 

What  was  the  external  aspect,  what  were  the  material 
Appear-  conveniences  and  comforts  of  a  medieval  town? 

medievat  Seen  from  a  distance  the  town  as  a  whole,  with 
town  its  walls,  towers,  and  church  spires,   presented 

a  very  picturesque  appearance. 


THE   RISE  OF  TOWNS  AND   GILDS  337 

"And  hills  all  rich  in  blossomed  trees, 
And  fields  which  promise  corn  and  wine, 
And  scattered  cities  crowning  these 
Whose  far  white  walls  along  them  shine." 

Medieval  writers  describe  their  cities  as  wonderfully  beauti- 
ful and  attractive,  and  no  doubt  they  were  more  interesting 
than  the  bleak  castle  of  a  feudal  lord,  and  their  life  more 
animated  and  comfortable  than  the  weary  round  of  exist- 
ence of  the  villein  in  his  hut  on  the  manor. 

Since  most  towns  grew  up  around  a  castle  or  monastery 
or  market,  or  followed  the  irregular  contour  of  a  hillside,  a 
river-bank,  or  the  shore  of  a  harbor,  the  streets  ^, 

The  streets 

tended  to  be  steep,  crooked,  and  labyrinthincJ,- 
They  were  also  narrow  like  those  in  an  ancient  city,  for  the 
circumscribing  walls  limited  the  town  area  and  made  space  ) 
within  the  fortifications  precious.  The  main  streets  ran 
to  the  town  gates,  which  were  the  only  points  where  one 
could  pass  in  and  out  of  town.  The  value  of  land  within  the 
walls  soon  led  to  the  practice  of  building  overhanging  upper 
stories  to  the  houses.  Goods  exposed  for  sale  in  front  of  the 
shops,  flapping  signboards  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  could 
not  read,  fountains  providing  a  water  supply  for  the  neigh- 
boring houses,  statues  of  saints  and  little  shrines  for  the 
devotional  purposes  of  passers-by,  further  obstructed  one's 
view  and  one's  path.  In  some  places  the  rule  existed  that  at 
least  one  clear  thoroughfare  must  be  left  through  the  center 
of  the  town,  so  that  a  horseman  with  lance  across  his  saddle 
could  ride  the  length  of  the  street  without  encountering  ob- 
structions. This  experiment  was  performed  annually  and 
any  part  of  a  building  that  interfered  with  the  progress  of 
the  lance  had  to  come  down. 

Street  cleaning  and  lighting,  sanitation  and  sewerage  were 
still  in  a  primitive  state.  Nevertheless,  modern  plumbing 
is  based  upon  a  medieval  invention.  Thomas  of  ^    .     . 

^      ^.  ,  .  r      1         1  •  1  Sanitation 

Cantimpre,  a  writer  01  the  thirteenth  century, 
says  that  formerly  in  the  case  of  aqueducts  laid  under 
ground  the  lead   pipes  were  soldered   together  with  tin, 
which  after  a  while  would  rust  out,  but  that  in  recent  times 


338        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

men  have  discovered  the  process  of  employing  molten  lead 
to  join  pipes  together,  "for  lead  lasts  forever  underground." 
Again,  while  the  streets  were  often  dark  and  narrow  and 
sometimes  filled  with  refuse,  and  while  the  towns  were 
crowded  and  unhealthy,  we  must  remember  that  they  had 
no  skyscrapers  and  not  many  tenement  houses,  that  a  beau- 
tiful countryside  usually  lay  just  beyond  the  walls,  and  that 
since  the  town  area  was  small  a  short  walk  would  bring  one 
from  any  part  of  the  town  to  green  fields  and  fresh  air. 
Men,  women,  and  children  in  medieval  towns  did  not,  like 
the  denizens  of  the  crowded  slums  in  some  modern  cities,  go 
from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the  other  with  scarcely  a  glimpse 
of  nature  or  a  moment  under  the  open  sky. 

The  first  habitations  of  the  townsmen  were  probably  little 
superior  to  the  huts  of  the  peasants.  That  they  were  small 
and  of  perishable  materials  is  indicated  by  an 
old  English  law  which  directs  that  a  house  which 
has  been  contaminated  by  the  presence  of  heretics  shall  be 
carried  outside  the  walls  and  burned.  But  since  the  town 
walls  afforded  a  protection  which  the  peasant's  fields  and 
dwelling  lacked,  as  the  burghers  grew  prosperous  through 
trade  and  industry,  they  naturally  satisfied  both  their  per- 
sonal ambition  and  their  civic  pride  by  building  better  and 
larger  and  more  durable  houses  and  filling  them  with  sub- 
stantial furniture.  Indeed,  a  master-workman  required  a 
residence  large  enough  to  include  his  shop  and  sleeping- 
apartments  for  the  apprentices  who  lived  with  him  as  well 
as  quarters  for  himself  and  his  family. 

Of  course  very  few  houses  from  as  long  ago  as  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  are  in  existence  to-day,  and  from 
those  which  have  survived  we  perhaps  derive  a  too  favor- 
able impression  of  medieval  domestic  architecture,  since 
only  the  best-built  houses  would  last  .that  long.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  mainly  in  small,  out-of-the-way  places  that 
such  houses  have  been  left  unchanged,  so  that  they  are  not 
representative  of  the  mansions  in  the  largest  medieval  cities. 
Moreover,  their  present  decrepit  and  disfigured  condition 
gives  little  idea  of  how  they  looked  when  new.  Allowing  for 


THE   RISE  OF  TOWNS  AND   GILDS  339 

this  we  find  that  the  medieval  houses  which  have  survived 
in  small  French  provincial  towns  compare  favorably  in 
appearance,  size,  and  construction  with  those  inhabited  by 
men  of  the  same  class  in  those  towns  to-day,  and  suggest  a 
municipal  prosperity  and  spirit  which  passed  away  with  the 
disastrous  wars  of  religion  in  the  sixteenth  century.  We 
have  seen  that  medieval  artisans  were  often  artists  as  well 
and  it  is  not  surprising  if  the  appearance  of  their  homes  re- 
flected this. 

It  is  hard  to  give  one  general  description  of  the  medieval 
house  which  will  fit  all,  since  not  only  were  there  differences 
between  different  countries,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  cus- 
tomary to  construct  houses  with  a  view  to  the  particular 
needs  and  even  the  personality  of  the  owner.  Instead  of 
having  the  windows  all  of  a  size  and  placing  them  in  regular 
rows,  the  medieval  architects  made  the  size  of  the  windows 
correspond  to  the  size  of  the  room  and  placed  the  windows 
so  as  to  admit  most  light.  Glass  windows  by  which  the  rain 
and  snow  and  cold  could  be  excluded  without  shutting  out 
the  light  now  came  into  domestic  use  for  the  first  time,  and 
chimneys  with  flues  which  enabled  one  to  heat  the  interior 
without  filling  it  with  smoke  were  another  medieval  innova- 
tion. Such  improvements  did  much  to  develop  home  life. 
In  some  French  houses  of  the  twelfth  century  the  front  of 
the  ground  floor  is  occupied  by  the  shop  of  the  owner. 
Behind  it  is  a  little  courtyard  along  one  side  of  which  a 
passage  runs  to  the  kitchen  situated  at  the  rear  and  sepa- 
rated by  the  court  from  the  main  body  of  the  house.  Above 
the  shop  is  a  large  living-room  occupying  the  entire  front  of 
the  house  and  containing  also  the  bed  of  the  father  and 
mother.  Over  the  kitchen  was  a  smaller  room  or  rooms, 
reached  from  the  living-room  by  a  gallery  overlooking  the 
court.  Here  perhaps  would  be  the  bedrooms  of  the  older 
children  of  the  family,  while  the  apprentices  slept  in  garrets 
on  the  third  floor  over  the  living-room. 

Although  few  houses  or  other  town  buildings,  with  the 
exception  of  the  churches  everywhere  and  the  stone  towers 
of  the  nobles  and  town  halls  and  gild  houses  in  Italian  cities, 


340        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

have  come  down  to  us  from  as  early  as  the  twelfth  or  thir- 
teenth centuries,  yet  the  towns  did  not  alter 
tion  of  the  greatly  in  their  general  appearance  and  charac- 
^pect^of  ^^^  until  after  the  great  industrial  revolution  of 
European  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  Since 
then  the  old  has  been  rapidly  swept  away  and 
even  the  picturesque  walls  have  been  leveled  and  replaced  by 
monotonous  and  dusty  "boulevards."  But  in  many  cities 
there  are  still  a  few  old  houses  left,  though  their  exact  age 
is  often  uncertain ;  and  some  towns,  like  San  Gemignano  in 
Italy,  Dinan  in  Brittany,  Schaffhausen  in  Switzerland,  and 
Rothenburg  on  the  Tauber  in  Germany,  still  preserve  a 
great  deal  of  their  medieval  atmosphere  and  charm.  Larger 
cities  like  Rouen  and  Niirnberg  are  fast  losing  it  before  the 
increasing  inroads  of  modern  business,  factories,  and  truck 
automobiles,  although  it  is  hard  to  get  rid  of  the  old,  narrow, 
crooked,  and  hilly  streets. 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Contemporary  Accounts  of  the  Rise  of  the  Towns. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  selections  Ii8  and  I2l. 

1.  When  were  these  accounts  written  and  to  what  towns  do  they 
apply? 

2.  Which  is  favorable  and  which  is  hostile  to  the  towns? 

3.  Can  this  be  accounted  for  in  both  cases  by  the  authorship? 

4.  Which  passage  is  the  more  informing? 

Secondary  Accounts  of  the  Rise  of  the  Towns. 

Blok,  History  of  the  People  of  the  Netherlands  (English  translation,  1898), 
vol.  I,  pp.  215-51,  or  especially  pp.  215-27  and  244-50,  on  the  rise  of 
towns  in  general  and  of  those  of  the  Netherlands  in  particular. 

See  the  readings  at  the  close  of  the  two  following  chapters  for  fur- 
ther selections,  most  of  which  have  reference  to  the  rise  of  towns  in 
some  one  country. 

The  Gilds:  Source  Material. 

G.  Jones,  The  Trades  of  Paris,  vol.  li,  no.  9,  of  European  History  Studies, 
F.  M.  Fling,  editor,  Lincoln,  Nebraska.    The  pamphlet  contains  eight 
passages  with  questions  upon  each. 
Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  selections  164  and  165. 

The  Gilds:  Secondary  Accounts. 

"Industry  in  Pisa  in  the  Early  Fourteenth  Century,"  in  the  Quarterly 

Journal  of  Economics,  vol.  xxviil  (1913-14),  pp.  341-59. 
Villari,  First  Two  Centuries  of  Florentine  History,  chap,   vi  on  "The 
Greater  Gilds,"  especially  pp.  310-40. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   ITALIAN   CITIES 

V 

The  Italian  cities  were  the  first  to  become  prominent; 
tiiey  were  the  largest  in  wealth  and   in  population;  and 
they  won  the  completest  independence  and  self-  Conditions 
government.    Conditions   in    Italy    for   several  favoring 

.  r  11  1  1       f   •      1        their  inde- 

centuries  were  favorable  to  the  growth  oi  mde-  pendent  de- 
pendent city-states.  First,  the  struggle  for  the  velopment 
peninsula  between  the  Lombards  and  the  Byzantine  Empire 
gave  coast  settlements  like  Gaeta,  Amalfi,  Naples,  and 
Venice  the  chance  to  develop  their  own  government  under 
their  local  dukes,  and  to  protect  themselves  from  the  in- 
vaders by  their  own  fleets,  while  still  nominally  professing 
allegiance  to  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Second,  when  Charle- 
magne's empire  first  weakened  and  then  dissolved,  the 
towns  of  northern  Italy  or  Lombardy  were  left  pretty 
much  to  themselves  under  the  rule  of  their  bishops  who  had 
in  general  succeeded  in  displacing  the  lay  counts.  Third, 
during  the  investiture  struggle  Henry  IV  and  sometimes 
Gregory  VII  granted  the  towns  privileges  in  order  to  secure 
their  support.  Thus  the  maritime  laws  of  Pisa  were  ap- 
proved by  the  pope  in  1075  and  again  in  1081  by  the 
emperor.  Finally,  as  we  shall  see,  the  protracted  strife  of 
popes  and  Hohenstaufen  emperors  gave  the  cities  the  oppor- 
tunity to  make  good  their  complete  independence. 

Moreover,  Italy  was  well  situated  to  control  trade  be- 
tween the  eastern  and  southern   Mediterranean  and  the 
west  and  north  of  Europe.    Therefore,  as  Con-  Growing 
stantinople  lost  its  hold  on  the  coasts  of  the^  Italian 
western    Mediterranean   and   was   also   driven  '^'^^^t  cities 
from  the  island  of  Sicily  and  the  Adriatic  Sea,  it  lost  much 
of  its  trade  and  its  place  was  taken  by  western  ports  such  as 
Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice.  These  three  cities  early  displayed 
their  enterprise  and  sea  power:  Venice,  under  the  Doge 


342        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Pietro  Orseolo  II  (983-1008),  by  clearing  the  Adriatic  of 
pirates;  the  other  two  by  their  activity  against  the  Sara- 
cens whom  in  1015  they  drove  out  of  the  island  of  Sardinia. 
That  already  at  this  early  date  the  Venetians  were  engaged 
in  transporting  wares  of  the  Far  East  to  European  lands 
north  of  the  Alps  is  indicated  by  a  passage  in  which  the 
German  chronicler  Thietmar,  of  the  eleventh  century,  be- 
wails the  shipwreck  in  1017  of  four  Venetian  vessels  laden 
with  spices. 

Since  we  know  rather  more  of  the  earliest  period  of 
Venetian  history  than  we  do  of  that  of  other  Italian  towns, 
Origins  of  since  its  institutions  and  culture  were  unique, 
Venice  g^j^^^  since  it  became  the  leading  medieval  sea 

power,  we  shall  speak  first  of  it  in  this  chapter.  Situated  on 
a  number  of  small  islands  or  banks  of  mud  in  a  lagoon  a 
little  north  of  the  mouths  of  the  Po  and  Adige  Rivers, 
Venice  was  secure  from  attack  either  by  land  or  sea.  The 
original  scanty  population  of  fisher-folk  was  gradually  aug- 
mented by  fugitives  from  the  successive  waves  of  barbarian 
invasion  that  swept  over  northern  Italy.  Theodoric  the 
East  Goth  sought  the  aid  of  these  islanders  in  transporting 
supplies  across  the  Adriatic  from  Istria;  and  Belisarius,  the 
great  general  of  Justinian,  made  use  of  their  boats  in  the 
siege  of  Ravenna.  In  697  they  are  said  to  have  elected  their 
first  doge,  a  single  ruler  for  life,  in  place  of  the  twelve  trib- 
unes representing  as  many  island  communities.  The  doge 
seems  to  have  been  much  like  the  elected  kings  of  the  Ger- 
man tribes.  He  tried  to  associate  his  son  with  himself  in 
the  government  and  thus  secure  his  succession  to  the  office 
and  alter  the  headship  from  an  elective  to  a  hereditary  one. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  a  doge  was  slain  by  some  rival, 
much  as  kings  were  in  the  German  states  in  the  West,  or 
was  blinded  in  Byzantine  fashion,  so  that  the  life  tenure 
of  the  position  was  often  of  short  duration.  Charlemagne, 
although  master  of  Lombardy,  had  to  leave  Venice  to  the 
Byzantine  emperor.  At  about  this  time,  too,  the  dwellers 
in  the  lagoon  concentrated  their  population  and  made  their 
capital  in  the  central  group  of  islands  called  the  Rialto, 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  343 

which  lies  halfway  between  the  mainland  and  the  Adriatic 
beach  of  the  outer  islands  of  the  lagoon.  With  this  change 
the  definite  settlement  of  Venice  proper  and  its  life  as  a 
town  may  be  said  to  have  begun.  In  the  early  ninth  century, 
too,  tradition  tells  us,  the  Venetians  brought  the  body  of 
their  patron,  St.  Mark,  from  Alexandria. 

The  relations  at  this  period  between  Venice  and  the 
Byzantine  Empire  were  close.  Many  of  the  doges  visited 
Constantinople  to  receive  confirmation  in  their  Relations 
office  and  further  Byzantine  titles,  or  sent  their  with  Con- 
sons  thither  to  be  educated  or  to  be  recognized  '  ^^ 
as  the  future  rulers  of  Venice.  Also  the  Venetians  were 
granted  trading  privileges  at  Constantinople  in  return  for 
services  which  their  ships  rendered  in  transporting  troops 
and  in  naval  battles.  In  991,  for  instance,  they  were  granted 
unusually  low  tariff  rates  and  an  expeditious  settlement  of 
their  lawsuits  at  Constantinople.  In  1085,  as  a  reward  for 
their  aid  to  the  Emperor  Alexius  against  the  Normans  of 
southern  Italy  and  Sicily,  they  were  granted  a  quarter  of 
their  own  in  Constantinople  and  were  freed  from  customs 
duties  in  all  ports  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  At  the  same 
time  all  merchants  from  Amalfi  at  Constantinople  were  sub- 
jected to  a  tax  for  the  building  of  a  new  church  of  St.  Mark 
at  Venice.  This  measure  marked  the  passing  of  Amalfi  as  a 
great  trading  city;  but  Genoa  and  Pisa  were  now  powerful 
rivals  of  Venice  for  the  Mediterranean  trade. 

Meanwhile  the  internal  constitution  of  Venice  had  been 
changing  from  the  simple  leadership  of   the  doge  to  more 
complicated  forms.     In  1032  the  doge  was  for-  Constltu- 
bidden  to  associate  his  son  with  himself  in  ofiice  tional 
and  was  henceforth  to  be  advised  by  two  ducal 
councilors  and  a  senate.     In  1171  the  government  took  a 
forced  loan  from  its  citizens,  but  gave  them  bonds  in  return 
upon  which  four  per  cent  interest  was  paid  yearly  —  an 
early  instance  of  a  public  debt.     The  following  year  the 
ducal  councilors  were  increased  in  number  to  six  and  an  in- 
directly elected  and  aristocratic  assembly  of  four  hundred 
and  eighty  members  was  added  to  the  previous  senate.   The 


344        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

doge  was  no  longer  elected  by  the  people,  if  indeed  he  ever 
really  had  been,  but  was  nominated  by  a  committee  ap- 
pointed by  the  assembly  of  four  hundred  and  eighty,  and 
then  was  merely  presented  to  the  people  for  formal  con- 
firmation. 

The  artisans  of  Venice,  however,  were  now  improving 
their  condition  through  their  gilds.  Some  of  them  still  had 
Progress  of  to  work  for  a  certain  length  of  time  in  the  court- 
the  gilds  yard  of  the  doge,  just  as  the  peasant  on  the 
manor  had  to  perform  his  three  days  a  week  of  service  on 
the  demesne  of  the  lord.  But  from  this  servitude  they  now 
tried  to  free  themselves.  Already  another  important  change 
had  taken  place.  The  gastaldo,  or  director  of  each  gild,  who 
had  formerly  been  an  agent  and  appointee  of  the  doge,  and 
sometimes  had  not  himself  been  a  worker  in  the  craft  at  all 
but  an  outsider,  now  was  elected  by  the  gild  from  among  its 
own  members.  He  therefore  became  its  representative  and 
ceased  to  be  the  doge's  agent.  Among  the  chief  manufac- 
tures of  the  Venetian  artisans  were  glass,  cloth,  silk,  leather, 
paper,  and  soap.  Venice  was,  however,  preeminently  a  city 
of  great  merchants  rather  than  of  small  artisans  and  as  such 
its  government  naturally  became  and  remained  oligarchical 
in  character. 

By  the  thirteenth  century  at  least  Venetian  traders  were 
found  well-nigh  all  over  the  known  world.  They  made  com- 
Venetian  mercial  treaties  with  the  sultans  of  Iconium  and 
commerce  Aleppo  and  with  the  Christian  rulers  of  Little 
Armenia  and  Trebizond.  In  1255  a  traveler  found  at  Ico- 
nium a  Venetian  and  a  Genoese  in  partnership;  they  had 
obtained  from  the  sultan  a  monopoly  of  the  alum  trade  and 
had  more  than  tripled  the  price  in  consequence.  Such  enter- 
prising traders  were  found  from  Damascus  to  Kiev  and 
from  the  Crimea  to  the  Caucasus.  The  Polo  brothers  even 
visited  China.  Venetians,  however,  not  merely  spread  over 
the  world  in  search  of  trade ;  so  far  as  they  could  they  forced 
trade  to  flow  through  Venice,  which  thus  took  a  profit  from 
goods  both  coming  and  going.  Venice  had  early  monopo- 
lized the  distribution  of  salt  in  her  immediate  neighborhood, 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  345 

and  she  largely  controlled  the  fur  trade  and  grain  trade  and 
slave  trade  by  way  of  the  Black  Sea.    In  pursuance  of  her 
steadfast  policy  to  center  all  trade  in  Venice  and  to  bring 
as  many  goods  there  as  possible,  she  would  not  allow  foreign 
vessels  to  cross  directly   between   the  east  and   the  west 
shores  of  the  Adriatic,  but  forced  them  to  go  by  way  of 
Venice  and  unload  at  least  two  thirds  of  their  cargoes  there. 
Venetian  subjects  outside  the  city  were  required  to  do  all 
their  importing  and  exporting  through  that  port.    German 
merchants  who  visited  Venice,  besides  being  disarmed  and 
subjected  to  strict  regulations,  had  to  dispose  of  their  entire 
stock  there.    No    import   duties  were  levied  upon  certain 
wares  which  Venice  wished  to  secure  from  the  regions  pro- 
ducing them  in  order  to  sell  again  at  a  profit  to  other  places. 
Such  goods,  however,  if  they  came  by  sea,  must  come  in 
Venetian    bottoms   if   they   were   to   escape   taxation,    for 
Venice  had  no  mind  to  encourage  the  shipping  Navigation 
of  other  towns.     Since   she  desired  the  carrying  '^^s 
trade  for  herself,  she  naturally  enacted  laws  favoring  her 
own  shipping  and  sailors.     In  some  instances  she  did  not 
allow  foreign  vessels  to  enter  her  harbor  at  all;  in  other 
cases  they  were  taxed  heavily  for  the  privilege.    In  the  mid- 
dle of  the  thirteenth  century  laws  were  made  forbidding 
Venetians  to  ship  their  goods  in  foreign  bottoms  or  to  sell 
their  vessels    to  foreigners.     All  vessels  used  by  Venetian 
merchants  must  be  built  in  Venice  and  manned  by  either 
Greeks  or   Venetian   subjects.   The   city  government   built 
and  armed  the  ships  and  then  rented  the  use  of  them  to  the 
merchants. 

At  that  time  it  was  usual  to  arm  merchant  vessels  which 
ventured  on  long  voyages,  since  there  was  constant  danger 
from  pirates  and  sometimes  from  the  ships  of  Medieval 
rival  powers.  Many  different  types  of  vessels  shipping 
were  employed  by  the  medieval  Italians,  and  they  were 
propelled  both  by  sails  and  oars.  They  were  often  built  with 
bulging  sides  in  order  to  accommodate  more  cargo.  How- 
ever, the  laws  of  Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice  not  only  forbade 
the  heaping-up  of  excessive  freight  on  deck,  but  ordered 


346       THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

that  all  merchantmen  should  be  marked  with  a  load-line. 
A  vessel  one  hundred  feet  long  was  then  regarded  as  of 
great  size,  although  some  war  galleys  were  longer  than  that. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  tons  was  considered  a  good  cargo. 
Where  oars  were  used,  a  crew  of  nearly  two  hundred  men 
was  often  needed,  several  of  them  working  at  one  oar.  The 
vessels  used  in  transporting  crusaders  to  the  East  some- 
times were  loaded  with  as  many  as  a  thousand  men  each, 
if  we  credit  the  sources.  By  the  fourteenth  century  the  rud- 
der had  replaced  the  old  method  of  steering  by  one  or  two 
oars  at  the  stern. 

While  Venice  was  becoming  a  great  sea  power,  the  towns 
on  the  mainland  had  also  developed  apace.  Under  the  early 
The  Lorn-  ^^^^  ^^  their  counts  or  bishops  the  townsmen, 
bard  com-  with  the  possible  exception  of  a  few  prominent 
families,  had  little  or  no  share  in  the  govern- 
ment and  might  even  be  without  personal  freedom.  But 
the  opening  of  the  twelfth  century  reveals  a  great  change 
in  northern  Italy.  In  the  Lombard  cities  the  townsmen  have 
abolished  the  rule  of  the  bishop  and  have  taken  the  reins 
of  government  into  their  own  hands,  aided  by  the  confu- 
sion attendant  upon  the  investiture  strife  when  there  were 
two  claimants  for  almost  every  bishopric.  The  townsmen 
effected  this  revolution  by  forming  communes,  in  which  the 
nobles  resident  in  the  cities  combined  with  the  other  free 
inhabitants  to  secure  the  direction  of  the  town  government. 

The  nobles  in  the  Lombard  cities  at  this  time  were 
divided  into  the  two  classes  of  capitani  and  valvassores.  The 
Social  "captains"  had  originally  been  those  who  held 

the^Lom-  great  fiefs  directly  from  the  bishop  or  the  em- 
bard  cities  peror,  while  the  '*valvassors"  were  the  subvas- 
sals  who  held  under  the  captains  or  great  landholders. 
There  were  a  number  of  such  nobles  connected  with  each 
city  because  most  Italian  cities  controlled  a  considerable 
circuit  of  adjoining  territory.  But  by  the  twelfth  century 
nobility  had  ceased  to  depend  exclusively  upon  birth  or  the 
possession  of  a  large  landed  estate.  Wealth  acquired  by 
commerce  was  also  a  road  to  nobility,  and  we  are  even  told 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  347 

by  a  contemporary  that  "the  cities  stoop  to  bestow  the 
sword-belt  and  honorable  rank  upon  youths  of  inferior 
station,  or  even  upon  laborers  in  despised  and  mechanical 
trades  who  among  other  peoples  are  shunned  like  the  pest." 
Below  the  two  knightly  or  military  classes  came  the  ordi- 
nary citizens,  or  popolo.  These  shared  with  the  captains  and 
knights  the  privilege  of  electing  and  being  elected  to  town 
offices.  The  term  popolo,  however,  was  not  equivalent  in 
meaning  to  the  democratic  modern  expression,  "the  peo- 
ple." It  did  not  include  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  and 
its  adjacent  territory,  but  only  those  freemen  who  had 
participated  in  the  formation  of  the  original  commune  and 
their  descendants  and  others  who  were  specifically  admitted 
to  citizenship.  When  the  commune  was  first  established, 
many  of  the  inhabitants  were  still  in  a  condition  of  ser\d- 
tude  like  that  of  the  "court  artisans"  of  Venice.  There- 
fore most  of  the  small  shopkeepers  and  artisans  were  not 
at  first  §iven  any  share  in  the  municipal  government. 
Still  less  was  the  franchise  ceded  to  the  poor  peasants  who 
tilled  the  fields  that  lay  outside  the  city  walls. 

The  Italian  communes  were  thus  rather  aristocratic  gov- 
ernments, although  liberal  enough  compared  to  feudalism. 
They  included  those  more  prosperous  merchants  Rule  of 
and  artisans  who  had  been  able  by  forming  gilds  theTwel'fth 
to  win  their  personal  freedom  and  a  considerable  century 
influence  in  the  conduct  of  town  affairs,  and  who  fighting 
on  foot  made  a  formidable  militia  to  second  the  efforts  of 
their  mounted  nobles.  At  the  head  of  the  town  government 
in  place  of  the  bishop  now  appeared  a  varying  number  of 
"consuls,"  who  were  usually  chosen  annually  and  who  were 
often  taken  from  all  three  classes  of  the  commune,  although 
there  was  a  natural  tendency  to  elect  leading  citizens  from 
the  upper  classes.  The  consuls  were  assisted  by  an  ad- 
visory council,  and  we  also  soon  find  in  existence  a  Grand 
Council  or  senate  or  council  of  the  commune,  which  often 
had  several  hundred  members  and  represented  the  entire 
citizen  body.  On  great  occasions,  however,  the  burghers 
were  not  content  to  leave  the  government  to  their  officials 


348        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  representatives,  but  held  a  parlamento  or  mass-meeting 
in  the  pubUc  square.  Such  a  gathering  sometimes  resulted 
in  a  revolution  or  at  least  in  a  street  fight  between  rival 
political  parties.  At  the  bottom  of  such  factions  and  parties 
were  the  consorterie,  or  family  unions  of  the  nobles,  and  the 
arti  or  trade  gilds  of  the  burghers. 

Life  was  stirring  in  these  Lombard  towns  where  there 
was  nothing  of  the  monotony  of  the  manor.  But  war  was 
Interurban  the  law  of  the  Urban,  almost  as  much  as  of  the 
intramural  feudal,  world.  The  cities  fought  against  the  cas- 
party  strife  i\qq  q{  feudal  lords  who  tried  to  maintain  an 
independent  existence  and  to  prey  upon  trade  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  towns.  The  cities  also  fought  frequently 
with  one  another  over  questions  of  boundaries,  water- 
rights,  roads,  tolls,  and  from  general  trade  rivalry.  Within 
each  town  were  sharp  family  rivalries.  Every  prominent 
noble  or  merchant  family  could  count  on  the  support  of  a 
multitude  of  poor  relations  and  retainers.  The  nobles  who 
were  forced  to  give  up  their  castles  and  live  in  town  built 
lofty  stone  towers  in  the  city  streets  and  waged  feuds  as 
they  had  done  before  from  their  country  castles.  New  gilds 
and  the  lower  classes  before  long  began  to  clamor  for  admis- 
sion to  citizenship.  Party  struggles  and  street  fights  often 
led  to  the  exile  of  the  defeated  faction  or  at  least  of  its 
leaders,  who  would  then  seek  the  aid  of  some  other  city  to 
effect  their  restoration. 

Yet  the  trade,  wealth,  and  productive  power  of  the  cities 
kept  increasing,  and  even  their  enemies  admitted  that  they 
Economic  were  socially  and  intellectually  above  the  av- 
fectual^^"  erage  of  that  age.  The  twelfth-century  writer 
advance  whom  we  havc  already  quoted  concerning  them, 
Bishop  Otto  of  Freising,  says  further  that,  as  a  result  of  the 
intermarriage  of  the  invading  Lombards  with  the  native 
Italians,  "their  children  have  derived  from  the  race  of  their 
mothers,  and  from  the  character  of  the  country  and  the 
climate,  something  of  Roman  culture  and  civilization,  and 
retain  the  elegance  and  refinement  of  Latin  speech  and 
manners." 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  349 

The  cities  of  Lombardy  not  only  shook  off  the  control  of 
their  bishops,  but  were  inchned  to  conduct  their  affairs  as 
if  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor  did  not  exist,  or  at   Relations  to 
least  had  no  right  to  tax  them,  to  overrule  their  Rodman  ^ 
officials,  to  judge  their  citizens,  or  to  demand   Empire 
military  and  other  services  from   them.     They  thought  it 
enough  to  send  him  a  few  presents  and  some  vague  pro- 
fessions of  loyalty  at  the  time  of  his  accession.    Frederick  I, 
however,  a  nephew  of    Bishop  Otto   of    Freising   and    an 
emperor  of  the  House  of  Hohenstaufen  who  reigned   from 
1 1 52  to  1 190,  made  a  great  effort  to  bring  the  cities  truly 
under  his  jurisdiction. 

Frederick,  though  of  only  medium  height,  had  a  majestic 
presence  and  lordly  personality.  His  hair  was  yellow  and 
his  red  beard  led  the  Italians  to  nickname  him  Frederick 
"  Barba-rossa."  He  was  fond  of  reading  history  Barbarossa 
and  took  Charlemagne  as  his  model.  Although  he  could  on 
occasion  indulge  in  those  fits  of  stern  anger  which  medieval 
monarchs  found  so  useful  in  dealing  with  their  rude  subjects 
and  rough  vassals,  he  was  as  a  general  rule  considerate  and 
kindly,  and  clement  to  the  conquered,  and  was  greatly 
loved  and  respected  by  the  Germans.  A  fact  which  con- 
tributed much  to  his  popularity  was  that  he  possessed  all 
the  qualities  and  attributes  which  went  to  make  up  the 
thorough  knight.  Though  he  was  devout  and  went  on  cru- 
sades both  in  his  youth  before  he  became  emperor  and  in 
old  age  at  the  close  of  his  reign,  he  had  much  trouble  with 
the  Papacy.  And  though  he  was  an  industrious  ruler  and 
indefatigable  warrior,  he  was  to  find  the  communes  of 
northern  Italy  too  much  for  him. 

Frederick  was  handicapped  in  his  Italian  policy  by 
troubles  at  home  in  Germany  with  the  rival  House  of  Welf, 
Dukes  of  Saxony  and  Bavaria,  who  had  pre-  Guelfsand 
vented  his  father  from  being  elected  emperor  in  Ghibellines 
1 125.  Now  Henry  the  Lion  built  up  great  Welf  possessions 
in  Germany  and  refused  to  aid  Barbarossa  in  his  Italian 
campaigns.  This  strife  of  Welfs  and  Hohenstaufens  in  Ger- 
many was  paralleled  in  Italy  by  the  struggle  between  the 


350        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

emperors  and  the  communes  and  the  Papacy.  As  a  result 
the  rival  parties  in  Italy  eventually  received  the  names 
of  "Guelfs"  and  "Ghibellines."  The  latter  word  was  an 
Italian  corruption  from  Waiblingen,  a  German  estate  of  the 
Hohenstaufen  family,  and  "Guelf "  is,  of  course,  the  Italian 
for  "Welf." 

In  recent  wars  among  the  Lombard  cities  Milan  had 
gained  a  leading  position  and  other  communes  complained  of 
Frederick's  her  aggressions  to  Frederick,  both  before  he  left 
timi  to^^  '"  Germany  and  when,  in  1154,  he  passed  through 
Italy  northern  Italy  on  his  way  to  Rome  to  be  crowned. 

The  great  feudal  lords  and  the  bishops  had  complaints 
to  make  of  other  communes.  Frederick  accordingly  spent 
most  of  the  autumn  and  winter  in  Lombardy,  but  it  took 
him  two  months  to  take  the  town  of  Tortona,  an  ally  of 
Milan,  so  that  he  had  no  time  left  to  attack  Milan  itself  and 
soon  proceeded  on  his  way  to  Rome.  As  soon  as  he  had  de- 
parted, the  Milanese  rebuilt  Tortona,  strengthened  their 
own  fortifications,  and  resumed  their  conquests  at  the  ex- 
pense of  those  of  their  neighbors  who  had  sided  with  the 
emperor.  At  Rome  Frederick  helped  the  pope  suppress  a 
revolutionary  movement  of  the  townsmen,  who  as  early  as 
1 143  had  formed  a  commune  with  a  patrician  and  senate 
of  their  own  choice  instead  of  the  papal  prefect  and  judges. 
Frederick  was  also  crowned  emperor,  but  then  distrust 
began  to  arise  between  him  and  the  pope.  Frederick's  vas- 
sals were  now  anxious  to  return  home  after  their  long 
absence  from  Germany,  so  that  he  had  to  give  up  the  idea 
of  proceeding  against  the  Normans  in  southern  Italy.  Nor 
did  he  stop  to  deal  with  Milan  on  his  return  north,  although 
he  pronounced  the  ban  of  the  Empire  upon  that  refractory 
city. 

But  in  1 158  Frederick's  German  hosts  poured  through  the 
Second  Alpine  passes  by  four  different  routes  into  the 

expedition      plain  of  Lombardy.  The  feudal  lords  of  northern 

and  capitu-       5!      ,  .,  ,  .  ,  .  , 

lationof  Italy  contributed  contmgents  to  his  army  and 
Milan  g^gj^   ^l^g    communes   dared   not   do  otherwise. 

Milan  was  soon  forced  to  surrender,  and  agreed,  in  addition 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  351 

to  setting  free  two  neighboring  towns  which  she  had  con- 
quered, to  pay  an  indemnity,  to  build  Frederick  a  palace, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  to  relinquish  to  him  the  regalia. 
By  this  term  were  indicated  his  royal  prerogatives,  such  as 
the  control  over  the  dukes  and  counts,  the  levying  of  tolls 
and  customs,  the  taking  of  provender  for  his  army,  the 
right  of  coinage,  and  the  enjoyment  of  various  revenues 
from  mills,  fisheries,  rivers,  mines,  and  like  sources.  The 
Milanese  were  to  be  allowed  to  retain  their  consuls,  but 
must  submit  their  nominations  to  the  emperor  for  approval. 

Frederick  then  proceeded  to  Roncaglia  and  held  a  great 
assembly  where  professors  of  Roman  law  from  Bologna, 
assisted  by  two  consuls  from  each  of  fourteen  The  Diet  of 
towns,  decided  what  the  emperor's  powers  and  Ro"caglia 
regalia  were.  The  study  of  Roman  law  had  recently  been 
revived  in  Italy,  and  that  law,  of  course,  assumed  the 
existence  of  an  emperor  with  centralized  and  absolute 
power.  Therefore  the  jurists  were  inclined  to  decide  every- 
thing in  Frederick's  favor  and  the  consuls  do  not  seem  to 
have  ventured  to  oppose  them.  Where  regalian  rights  had 
been  formally  granted  to  cities  by  the  emperor,  they  were 
to  be  allowed  to  retain  them;  but  few  towns  could  prove 
any  such  grant,  since  most  of  them  had  simply  usurped 
these  rights. 

Made  confident  by  this  success,  Frederick  not  only  for- 
bade the  communes  to  wage  war  or  ally  with  one  another, 
but  did  not  even  leave  them  the  independent  The  struggle 
management  of  their  internal  affairs  under  the  renewed 
leadership  of  their  consuls.  Instead  he  set  up  a  representa- 
tive of  his  own  called  a  podestd  (potestas  in  Latin,  meaning 
"power")  in  each  city  as  a  chief  judge  and  executive.  This 
was  going  too  far,  and  the  Milanese  regarded  it  as  a  viola- 
tion of  their  treaty  with  the  emperor  by  which  he  had 
assured  them  the  continuance  of  their  consuls.  Therefore 
war  broke  out  again  between  them  and  Frederick.  At  the 
same  time  the  pope  quarreled  with  him  because  he  was 
extending  his  power  over  towns  of  central  Italy  which  the 
pope  regarded  as  possessions  of  the  Holy  See.     The  pope 


352        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

allied  with  the  Normans  and  Milan  against  Frederick  and 
was  about  to  excommunicate  him,  when  he  died  and  a 
disputed  papal  election  followed.  Frederick  supported  the 
candidate  of  the  minority,  Victor  III,  against  Alexander  III, 
who  was  more  generally  recognized  in  Europe.  Milan  fell  in 
1 162.  Its  population  was  scattered  in  villages  and  other 
towns,  instead  of  being  reduced  to  serfdom  as  Frederick  had 
at  first  threatened,  and  its  foes  among  the  other  communes 
were  allotted  the  pleasing  task  of  destroying  its  walls  and 
buildings.  In  the  same  year  Alexander  III  fled  to  France 
where  both  Louis  VII  and  Henry  II  of  England  received 
him  cordially. 

The  hatred  and  jealousy  felt  by  many  of  the  other  cities 
toward  Milan  had  in  large  measure  accounted  for  its  fall. 
Formation  But  now  all  the  cities,  whether  before  friends  of 
Lombard  the  emperor  or  allies  of  Milan,  began  alike  to 
League  chafe  under  the  rule  of  the  imperial  podestas. 

Only  a  very  few  towns  had  been  allowed  to  keep  their  con- 
suls. The  others  complained  to  the  emperor  that  the  rule  of 
his  new  officials  was  oppressive  and  unjust,  but  he  seems 
to  have  paid  little  attention  to  these  complaints.  Then 
the  cities  began  to  unite  against  him.  As  early  as  11 64 
five  towns  of  northeastern  Italy,  Venice,  Verona,  Vicenza, 
Padua,  and  Treviso,  formed  a  defensive  league.  Three  years 
later  Cremona,  Mantua,  Brescia,  and  Bergamo  banded 
together  with  the  former  inhabitants  of  Milan  to  rebuild 
that  city.  Piacenza,  Parma,  and  Ferrara  soon  joined  the 
league  and  the  inhabitants  of  Lodi  were  forced  into  it 
against  their  will.  Meanwhile  Frederick  had  been  occupied 
in  driving  Alexander  III  out  of  Rome  again.  A  pestilence 
had  greatly  depleted  his  forces,  and  when  he  returned  north 
to  Pavia  he  was  unable  to  crush  the  rebellious  towns.  On 
the  contrary,  they  united  with  the  five  cities  of  the  north- 
east in  a  larger  Lombard  League,  which  was  also  joined  by 
Modena  and  Bologna.  The  emperor  went  back  to  Germany 
for  more  troops,  but  then  was  detained  there  for  seven  years. 
During  this  time  the  membership  of  the  league  kept  grow- 
ing until  it  included  thirty-six  towns  and  all  Italy  north  of 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  355 

the  Apennines  from  Rimini  and  Venice  on  the  Adriatic  as 
far  west  as  Genoa  and  Turin,  which  remained  loyal  to  the 
emperor.  But  even  imperial  Pavia  had  been  at  last  forced 
to  enter  the  league. 

The  league  also  built  a  new  town  —  named  Alessandria 
after  the  pope  —  in  northwestern  Italy  as  an  obstacle  to  the 
next  expedition  of  Frederick,  which  they  thought  Alessandria 
would  come  through  the  western  Alpine  passes,  and 
since  the  cities  of  the  league  held  all  the  others. 
Sure  enough,  in  1174  Barbarossa  entered  Italy  by  the  Mont 
Cenis  Pass  and  proceeded  against  Alessandria,  but  was 
unable  to  take  it.  Then  an  attempt  to  settle  the  points 
in  dispute  between  himself  and  the  cities  by  negotiations 
failed,  but  several  towns  were  induced  to  abandon  the 
league.  Finally,  in  11 76  at  Legnano  occurred  a  decisive 
field  battle  between  the  imperial  forces  and  the  Milanese 
and  their  remaining  allies.  Frederick's  army  was  routed 
and  chased  for  eight  miles ;  his  camp  and  banner  were  cap- 
tured ;  and  he  himself  was  given  up  for  dead  until  several 
days  later  he  unexpectedly  reappeared  before  the  walls  of 
Pavia. 

Frederick  thereupon  gave  up  his  attempt  to  subdue  the 
Lombard  cities  by  force  and  recognized  Alexander  III  as 
rightful  pope.  After  a  truce  of  six  years,  during  Peace  of 
which  the  emperor  made  separate  treaties  with  Constance 
a  number  of  the  towns,  the  Peace  of  Constance  was  signed 
in  1 1 83.  The  townsmen  were  to  take  an  oath  of  allegi- 
ance to  the  emperor,  to  whom  also  were  reserved  a  few 
rights  such  as  taking  supplies  for  his  army  when  passing 
through  Lombardy;  but  most  of  the  regalia  were  surren- 
dered to  the  communes,  who  were  also  given  back  their 
consuls  and  were  permitted  to  form  leagues  or  make  war 
with  one  another  and  to  hold  dependent  territory  outside 
their  walls.  The  large  towns  thereupon  resumed  with  alac- 
rity their  former  interurban  hostilities,  and  brought  the 
nobles  and  small  communes  of  the  countryside  more  and 
more  under  their  rule.  Around  the  year  1200  town-halls 
with  great  bell  towers,  or  palaces  of  justice  for  the  law 


354        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

courts,  were  erected  in  many  Lombard  cities,  and  some  of 
them  may  still  be  seen  to-day.  At  Padua,  for  example,  the 
Palazzo  della  Ragione,  begun  in  1172  and  completed  in  12 19, 
contains  "the  largest  vaulted  hall  unsupported  by  pillars 
in  the  world."  It  is  two  hundred  and  seventy  feet  long, 
ninety  feet  in  breadth,  and  seventy-eight  feet  high. 

Meanwhile  the  towns  of  Tuscany  south  of  the  Apennines 
had  been  pursuing  a  similar  development.  When  Matilda, 
Countess  of  Tuscany,  died  in  11 15,  she  bequeathed  her  es- 
Rise  of  tates  to  the  Church,  but  the  emperor  claimed 

towns  in  them  as  fiefs  which  should  escheat  to  the  Em- 
uscany  ^.^^  ^j^^  outcome  was  that  neither  pope  nor 
emperor  secured  the  cities,  which  set  up  communes  with 
consuls  similar  to  those  of  the  Lombard  towns.  Within  the 
towns,  too,  were  much  the  same  social  classes  and  political 
parties,  the  nobles  of  the  towers  and  the  men  of  the  gilds. 
But  the  Tuscan  communes  developed  a  little  later  than  the 
Lombard  ones.  Chief  among  the  medieval  towns  of  Tuscany 
were  Florence  and  its  rivals,  Pisa,  Siena,  and  Lucca. 

About  the  year  1200  almost  every  commune  in  Lombardy 
or  Tuscany  made  a  remarkable  change  in  its  government. 
,  The  board  of  consuls  which  had  hitherto  directed 
the  municipal  affairs  was  now  supplanted  by  a 
single  ofhcial  with  supreme  executive  power  who  was  an- 
nually elected,  not  from  the  citizens,  but  from  some  for- 
eign city.  Indeed,  he  must  neither  bring  his  relations  into 
the  city  nor  acquire  property  there.  The  aim  was  to  secure 
a  trained  soldier,  impartial  judge,  and  able  leader  who  would 
have  no  personal  interest  in  the  rival  political  parties  of  the 
town  and  who  would  keep  the  peace  between  them.  Like 
the  governors  appointed  by  Barbarossa  after  the  Diet  of 
Roncaglia  this  new  official  was  given  the  name  podestd.  But 
he  was  now  chosen  by  the  town  itself,  and  for  but  a  year  at 
a  time,  and  was  paid  a  salary  varying  in  amount  according 
to  the  satisfaction  that  he  gave.  A  man  who  showed  him- 
self a  capable  executive  need  never  want  for  employment  as 
a  podesta  by  some  one  of  the  many  cities.  But  this  new 
office  was  a  dangerous  step  in  the  direction  of  one-man  rule. 


THE   ITALIAN   CITIES  355 

We  have  seen  that  the  taking  of  interest  on  loans  was 
forbidden  to  Christians  by  medieval  canon  law,  and  in  many 
places  the  practice  was  prohibited  by  civil  law  ^Use  of 
as  well.  As  a  result  money-lending  and  even  Italian 
most  banking  was  for  a  time  in  the  hands  of  the 
Jews,  who,  besides  lending  money,  gave  letters  of  credit  and 
bills  of  exchange.  As  the  Italians,  however,  came  to  have  a 
large  supply  of  capital  as  a  result  of  their  commercial  and 
industrial  prosperity,  they  began  to  found  banking  houses, 
and  to  exchange  foreign  money  or  transmit  sums  from  one 
part  of  Europe  to  another.  The  varieties  of  coinages  were 
almost  infinite  in  the  Middle  Ages  when  so  many  feudal 
lords  and  independent  towns  had  the  right  to  mint  money, 
and  it  was  easy  for  a  money-changer  to  make  a  little  profit 
on  each  transaction.  The  transportation  of  money  was  often 
difficult  and  dangerous,  so  that  bankers  were  justified  in 
charging  a  fee  for  rendering  this  service.  The  Papacy, 
which  drew  its  revenues  from  all  parts  of  western  and  cen- 
tral Europe,  was  the  leading  employer  of  the  Italian  bank- 
ers in  collecting  and  transmitting  sums  of  money.  Before 
long  the  Italians  began  to  advance  large  sums  to  kings  and 
states  as  well  as  smaller  sums  to  lesser  individuals  and  to 
receive  interest  until  the  money  advanced  was  repaid.  They 
evaded  the  law  against  usury  by  making  the  loan  free  from 
interest  for  a  brief  specified  period,  during  which  they  knew 
that  the  borrower  could  not  or  would  not  repay.  When  that 
time  expired,  they  charged  damages  if  the  entire  principal 
were  not  forthcoming  and  after  another  interval  did  the 
same  again.  North  of  the  Alps  almost  any  Italians  engaged 
in  banking  were  indiscriminately  called  "Lombards,"  and 
Lombard  Street  was  the  center  of  the  financial  district  of 
London.  But  the  largest  banking  firms  were  rather  in 
Tuscany  and  especially  at  Florence,  perhaps  because  of 
their  nearness  to  Rome  and  employment  by  the  Papacy. 


X 


356        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Map  Exercise. 

1.  Locate  on  an  outline  map  of  Italy  all  the  cities  mentioned  in 
this  chapter,  and  the  battlefield  of  Legnano. 

2.  Indicate  the  boundary  of  Tuscany  on  the  same  outline  map. 

3.  Explain  how  Frederick  Barbarossa  could  march  from  Germany 
to  Italy  by  way  of  the  Mont  Cenis  Pass  without  going  outside 
the  territory  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

Early  History  of  Venice. 
Any  one  of  the  first  six  chapters  in  H.  F.  Brown,  Venice  (1895);  or  his 
article  on  the  history  of  Venice  in  the  EncyclopcBdia  Britannica,  nth 
edition. 

Other  Italian  Towns. 

W.  F.  Butler,  The  Lombard  Communes  (1906),  any  one  of  the  first  six 

chapters. 
Duffy,  Tuscan  Republics  (1893),  any  one  of  the  first  seven  chapters. 
Sedgwick,  Italy  in  the  Thirteenth  Century,  vol.  i,  chap.  xiii. 

Gilds  and  Industry. 

For  readings  on  Italian  medieval  gilds  and  industry  see  the  close  of 
the  preceding  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  AND  GERMAN  TOWNS 

Of  the  towns  beyond  the  Alps  those  of  southern  France 
were  on  the  whole  older  than  the  others,  more  closely  con- 
nected with  the  Roman  past  and  with  Mediter-  Consular 
ranean  trade,  and  also  most  like  the  Italian  southern 
cities  in  their  government.  Like  them  they  France 
included  both  nobles  and  common  people  and  were  at  first 
governed  by  consuls,  of  whom  we  begin  to  hear  about  1120. 
These  magistrates,  usually  twelve  in  number,  were  chosen 
annually,  but  seldom  by  the  votes  of  all  the  townsmen. 
Sometimes  they  practically  nominated  their  successors,  and 
sometimes  the  bishop  or  feudal  lord  had  retained  a  share  in 
the  town  government  and  had  a  voice  in  their  selection. 
Associated  with  these  annual  magistrates  was  a  fairly  large 
advisory  council,  drawn  also  chiefly  from  the  patriciate 
of  knights  and  wealthy  burghers  who  had  taken  the  lead 
in  establishing  the  municipality.  Sometimes,  however,  a 
larger  assembly  of  citizens  was  called  together.  The  south- 
ern towns  did  a  deal  of  legislation  and  recorded  their  stat- 
utes at  length,  but  this  did  not  prevent  them  from  tinkering 
with  them  at  frequent  intervals. "  The  Italian  influence  in 
southern  France  was  further  shown  by  the  fact  that  early 
in  the  thirteenth  century  the  office  of  podesta  spread  from 
Italy  to  several  cities  of  Provence. 

The  Provengals  and  the  Catalans  of  ports  like  Mont- 
pellier  and  Barcelona  in  the  Kingdom  of  Aragon  were  close 
seconds  to  the  Italians  in  Mediterranean  trade.  Trade  of 
There  was  a  "port  of  the  Provencals"  on  the  PreS^^^'"' 
southern  coast  of  Asia  Minor  and  they  had  a  towns 
street  in  each  of  the  Syrian  ports.  Marseilles  traded  much 
with  northern  Africa  and  its  sailors  were  the  first  to  venture 
straight  across  the  Mediterranean  instead  of  skirting  the 
coast  of  Italy.     Narbonne  profited  by  the  trade  route  be- 


358        THE   HISTORY   OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

tween  Egypt  and  England,  which  went  overland  across 
France  by  way  of  Toulouse  to  Bordeaux,  until  early  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  when  its  harbor  silted  up,  and  it  expelled 
its  large  Jewish  colony,  and  the  Italian  cities  began  to  send 
their  fleets  around  Spain  to  England  and  Flanders.  Bor- 
deaux and  Bayonne  on  the  southwestern  coast  of  France 
belonged  to  England  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury and  carried  on  an  extensive  trade  with  it,  especially 
in  wine.  They  also  traded  both  with  Spain  and  with  Flan- 
ders. They  did  not  have  the  consuls  of  most  southern 
French  towns,  but  were  communes  with  mayors  like  the 
towns  of  the  north  which  we  shall  presently  describe. 

In  central  France  the  chief  channel  of  trade  was  the  river 
Loire,  although  the  boats  of  merchants  were  often  halted 
Privileged  to  pay  tolls  and  customs  duties  to  the  feudal 
central  lords  along  its  banks,  and  although,  to-day  at 

France  least,  the  river  is  full  of  shoals  and  quicksands 

and  keeps  changing  its  channel.  Central  France  was  a  fer- 
tile plain  for  whose  agricultural  products  the  numerous 
scattered  towns  furnished  markets.  As  a  rule  these  towns 
did  not  attain  to  self-government,  but  merely  to  freedom 
from  many  of  the  feudal  and  manorial  restrictions  under 
which  they  had  previously  labored.  To  distinguish  towns 
with  such  charters  from  the  consular  cities  of  the  south  and 
the  communes  of  the  north  we  may  call  them  "privileged 
towns. "  Towns  of  this  sort  were  sometimes  found  in  the 
north  and  south  too,  but  in  central  France  they  predomi- 
nated. 

In  northern  France  a  few  communes  were  formed  in  the 
late  eleventh  century,  but  the  twelfth  was  the  great  period 
The  com-  of  their  rise.  They  were  governed  by  a  mayor, 
northern  who,  howevcr,  had  less  power  than  the  mayor 
France  Qf  ^  modern  American  city,  and  by  a  council  of 

from  a  dozen  to  a  hundred  members.  In  the  north  most  of 
the  feudal  nobility  lived  outside  the  towns,  and  the  towns- 
men were  a  class  distinct  from  the  knights  and  hitherto 
reckoned  quite  inferior  to  them.  In  fact  the  townsmen  had 
come  up  from  serfdom,  and  their  acquisition  of  the  right  of 


360        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

self-governraent  was  more  of  a  democratic  revolution  than 
the  rise  of  the  Italian  communes  or  of  the  southern  French 
towns.  Even  those  men  who  lived  outside  the  walls  were 
granted  equal  rights  with  those  dwelling  in  the  town  proper. 
And  since  the  men  of  the  French  commune  were  originally 
all  of  the  same  social  class  and  since  they  were  at  first  ani- 
mated by  a  common  purpose,  up  to  the  close  of  the  twelfth 
century  there  was  little  sign  of  the  party  strife  so  manifest 
in  Italian  towns.  The  governing  council,  however,  came  in 
many  cases  to  represent  the  richer  and  more  influential  citi- 
zens and  in  the  thirteenth  century  social  and  political  dis- 
content prevailed  in  many  French  towns. 

A  commune  was  a  sworn  association  of  the  townsmen  with 
the  object  of  excluding  the  lord's  officials  and  authority 
How  a  com-  from  their  town  and  of  taking  charge  of  the  gov- 
^tablirhed-  emment  themselves.  Sometimes  they  purchased 
Laon  this  concession  from  the  lord,  but  usually  they 

had  to  fight  for  it.  A  secret  conspiracy,  a  sudden  uprising, 
and  either  victory  and  independence  for  the  burghers  or  a 
cruel  suppression  of  the  movement  by  the  lord  were  the 
normal  steps  in  the  history  of  a  commune.  At  Laon,  once 
the  favorite  residence  of  the  later  Carolingians,  the  process 
was  a  little  more  complicated.  Here  in  the  early  twelfth 
century  public  sentiment  was  aroused  by  the  recent  success 
of  the  neighboring  towns  of  St.  Quentin  and  Noyon  in 
establishing  communes  and  by  the  cruel  rule  of  the  Bishop 
of  Laon,  who  devoted  more  time  to  warfare  and  hunting 
than  to  religion  and  who  employed  his  negro  slave,  John, 
too  frequently  as  an  executioner.  The  townsmen,  therefore, 
took  advantage  of  the  absence  of  their  prelate  in  England  to 
form  a  commune,  purchasing  the  consent  of  other  clergy 
and  local  nobles  who  had  rights  over  the  town.  On  learning 
of  this  upon  his  return,  the  bishop  went  into  a  rage,  but  at 
last  was  apparently  reconciled  by  a  large  sum  of  money, 
and  the  ratification  of  King  Louis  VI  was  procured  by  a 
similar  payment.  But  when  the  king  presently  paid  a  visit 
to  Laon,  the  treacherous  bishop  tried  to  induce  him  to  annul 
his  consent.  The  citizens  offered  Louis  four  hundred  pounds 


FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  GERMAN   TOWNS    361 

more  if  he  would  keep  his  word,  but  the  bishop  outbid  them 
with  an  offer  of  seven  hundred  pounds,  and  the  king  there- 
upon declared  the  commune  abolished.  The  bishop  then 
set  out  to  recover  his  seven  hundred  pounds  by  taxing  the 
townspeople,  but  this  was  too  much  for  them  to  bear  and 
proved  his  undoing.  They  took  arms,  raised  the  cry  of  the 
commune,  broke  into  the  episcopal  palace,  massacred  its 
defenders,  and  when  the  bishop  was  found  hiding  in  a  bar- 
rel, a  serf  beat  out  his  brains.  The  king  thereupon  hastened 
with  an  army  to  avenge  this  sacrilegious  murder  and  sacked 
the  town;  but  a  few  years  later  the  people  got  their  com- 
mune after  all,  although  some  rights  were  now  reserved  for 
king,  bishop,  and  nobles. 

This  case  of  Laon  suggests  several  points  that  are  true  of 
the  French  communes  in  general.  They  were  created  espe- 
cially at  the  expense  of  bishops  and  ecclesiastical  church  and 
lords,  and  the  Church  in  consequence  made  a  communes 
great  outcry  against  them.  "Commune  is  a  new  and  detest- 
able word,"  wrote  an  abbot  of  the  time.  The  communes  for 
their  part  usually  would  not  admit  the  clergy  to  their  mem- 
bership. In  the  rise  of  the  communes,  in  short,  we  see  a  new 
force,  primarily  secular,  political,  and  economic  in  character. 
The  clergy  to  a  considerable  extent  brought  the  communal 
movement  upon  themselves  by  their  unwillingness  to  eman- 
cipate serfs  or  to  grant  considerable  privileges  and  liberal 
charters  to  the  towns,  as  many  of  the  nobles  did  and  thus  in 
some  measure  forestalled  and  obviated  the  formation  of 
communes. 

The  case  of  Laon  also  illustrates  royal  interference  in  the 
formation  of  communes.  The  Capetians  did  not  care  to  see 
independent  towns  springing  up  on  their  own  King  and 
domain,  although  they  were  sometimes  unable  to  communes 
prevent  it.  But,  especially  after  the  reign  of  Louis  VI,  they 
began  to  see  the  advantage  of  encouraging  the  movement 
upon  the  estates  of  their  great  vassals,  whose  power  would 
thereby  be  weakened,  especially  if  the  new  communes  should 
retain  a  feeling  of  gratitude  toward  the  Crown  which  had 
sanctioned  their  rise. 


362        THE   HISTORY   OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  story  of  Laon  further  shows  us  how  rapidly  the 
Spread  of  communal  movement  spread  from  town  to 
communal       town.    As  a  rule,   however,  each  town  had  to 

movement:  .  , 

copying  of  work  out  its  own  liberty.  The  French  corn- 
charters  munes  formed  almost  no  such  leagues  as  that 
of  the  Lombard  cities  against  Barbarossa.  But  they  copied 
one  another's  charters  and  laws  a  great  deal. 

Each  commune  had  a  seal  of  its  own,  a  belfry  whose  bell 
summoned  the  citizens  to  the  defense  of  their  liberties,  and 
Govern-  a  pillory  and  gibbet  where  the  decrees  of  town 
Smmune:  justice  Were  cxecutcd.  For  the  commune  had 
Soissons  its  own  court,  made  its  own  laws  or  followed  its 
own  customs,  and  the  fines  paid  went  into  the  town  treasury 
and  not  into  the  lord's  pocket.  Indeed,  the  commune  owned 
no  lord.  Within  the  area  of  the  town  and  its  suburbs  the 
authority  of  the  commune  was  supreme.  The  charter  of 
Soissons,  dating  from  the  twelfth  century  and  widely  copied 
by  other  towns,  declares  that  "all  men  living  within  the 
•walls  and  without  the  walls  in  the  suburb,  to  whatever 
manor  they  may  belong,  shall  take  the  oath  to  the  com- 
mune; and  if  any  one  of  them  shall  refuse,  those  who  have 
taken  the  oath  shall  confiscate  his  house  and  money.  All 
men  living  within  the  boundaries  of  the  commune  shall  aid 
one  another  to  the  extent  of  their  ability,  and  shall  not  per- 
mit any  outsider  to  carry  anything  away  nor  to  collect  taxes 
from  any  one  of  them.  When  the  bell  summons  the  com- 
mune to  assemble,  any  one  failing  to  appear  shall  pay  a  fine 
of  twelve  pence.  If  any  member  of  the  commune  has  com- 
mitted any  offense  and  refuses  to  give  satisfaction  before 
the  aldermen,  the  men  of  the  commune  shall  punish  him." 
Such  sentences  illustrate  the  ideals  of  independence,  demo- 
cratic brotherhood,  and  active  citizenship  which  animated 
the  founders  of  these  twelfth-century  commonwealths. 

Soissons  at  this  time  was  scarcely  more  than  an  agricul- 
tural center  with  a  market  for  the  cornV.wine,  timber,  and 
Rural  salt  of  the  vicinity.   The  commune  here  preceded 

communes  ^j^g  formation  of  artisan  gilds.  Indeed,  as  in 
Italy,  many  tiny  villages  shared  in  this  revolutionary  move- 


FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  GERMAN  TOWNS   363 

ment  which  swept  over  the  land,  and  became  rural  com- 
munes, carrying  on  their  husbandry  and  administering  local 
justice  without  interference  from  lords. 

The  French  communes  were  lively  centers  of  local  inde- 
pendence, vigor,  and  enterprise,  but  were  not  as  large  and 
powerful  as  the  Italian  cities,  and  did  not  like  French  and 
them  pursue  an  aggressive  foreign  policy.    That  communes 
is  to  say,  they  did  not  fight  with  one  another  nor  compared 

•'  ^         J  °  as  to  foreign 

attempt  to  conquer  the  rural  communes  and  policy 
other  territory  about  them  as  the  Italian  cities  did.  Further- 
more, they  were  willing  to  recognize  in  a  loose  way  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  king  or  the  head  of  the  particular  feudal 
state  in  which  each  was  located,  and  in  time  of  need  to  fur- 
nish him  with  funds  or  some  of  their  militia,  provided 
ordinarily  he  left  them  to  attend  to  their  own  affairs.  Nor 
were  their  militia  to  be  despised,  as  Henry  II  of  England 
found  in  11 88  when  the  citizens  of  Mantes,  a  town  of  only 
five  thousand  inhabitants,  ventured  forth  from  their  walls 
fully  armed  and  checked  his  advance. 

Not  all  the  towns  of  northern  France,  by  any  means,  suc- 
ceeded in  becoming  communes.    Some  of  the  largest  cities, 
like  Paris,  Chartres,  and  Troyes,  could  hardly  Govern- 
even  be  called  privileged  towns,  but  were  still  ment  of 
largely  subject  to  the  old  seigneurial  exploita- 
tion.    Parts  of  Paris  belonged  to  certain  monasteries  and 
were  immune  from  the  royal  ofiicials.    The  Bishop  of  Paris 
had  well-nigh  absolute  power  over  the  island  in  the  Seine 
known  as  La  Cite  and  over  portions  of  the  neighboring 
banks  of  the  rivers.    Otherwise  the   Parisians  were  ruled 
by  a  royal  provost.    Gilds  existed,  however,  and  certain 
burghers  enjoyed  special  royal  favor.    When  the  king  went 
on  a  crusade  in  1 190,  he  appointed  six  burghers  of  Paris  to 
the  council  of  regency  during  his  absence. 

All  over  France,  as  well  as  in  the  eastern  lands  colon- 
ized by  the  Germans  in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, feudal  lords  and  monasteries  now  founded   ^, 

.  .  New  towns 

Newtons"  {].es  villes  neuves),  laid  out  m  regular 
squares  instead  of  the  crooked  streets  of  old  towns  which 


364        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

had  grown  up  irregularly.  In  these  new  settlements  special 
privileges  were  offered  to  attract  settlers.  A  good  example 
is  the  charter  of  Beaumont  in  the  Argonne,  which  was 
adopted  by  hundreds  of  other  settlements.  This  place  in 
1 1 82  received  from  its  lord  permission  to  elect  officials  with 
powers  of  high  justice.  These  officials  were,  however,  to 
turn  over  to  the  lord  a  part  of  the  fines  and  other  proceeds 
of  justice  and  to  collect  various  other  dues  and  taxes  for 
him.  These  new  towns  were  apt  to  be  largely  agricultural 
in  their  economic  life,  at  least  when  first  started,  unless 
founded  near  harbors  where  fishing  and  trade  would  at  once 
flourish.  We  read,  however,  in  a  poet  of  the  time  of  a  new 
city  where  eight  hundred  families  came  to  live,  of  whom  one 
hundred  devoted  themselves  to  commerce,  one  hundred  to 
fishing,  one  hundred  to  various  crafts.  One  hundred  more 
were  bakers,  another  hundred  kept  taverns,  and  the  rest 
seem  to  have  cultivated  gardens  and  vineyards. 

In  northern  France  the  river  Seine  was  an  important 
artery  of  trade  exploited  by  associations  of  boatmen  and 
^  merchants  at  Rouen  and  Paris  and  on  the  upper 

Commerce  ,  ,  ^  ^^ 

of  northern  Seine  in  Burgundy,  who  at  times  came  into  con- 
flict over  their  respective  shares  in  the  river 
traffic.  But  the  chief  center  of  commerce  in  the  twelfth  and 
early  thirteenth  centuries  was  Champagne,  with  its  famous 
fairs,  where  traders  from  the  Mediterranean  cities  exchanged 
their  wares  with  merchants  from  the  north.  These  fairs 
were  held  in  succession  at  different  places  and  each  lasted 
about  six  weeks.  The  two  largest  fairs  were  at  Troyes,  from 
which  the  expression  "Troy  weight"  is  perhaps  derived, 
and  at  Provins,  whose  population  has  shrunk  to-day  to  a 
tenth  of  what  it  was  then.  The  sagacious  Counts  of  Cham.- 
pagne  protected  the  visiting  merchants,  kept  moderate  the 
dues  that  were  levied  at  the  fairs,  and  strictly  enforced  all 
contracts  and  debts  entered  into  there. 

The  towns  of  Flanders  and  its  adjoining  districts  engaged 
Flemish  especially  in   cloth   manufacture  and   in   other 

towns  textile  industries.    Arras,  the  capital  of  Artois, 

gave  its  name  to  tapestry  hangings,  famed  in  the  Middle  Ages 


FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  GERMAN  TOWNS    365 

but  manufactured  no  longer,  such  as  Polonius  hides  be- 
hind in  one  of  the  scenes  in  Hamlet.  Cambrai,  the  chief 
city  of  an  ecclesiastical  principality,  still  manufactures  x 
cambric  which  was  invented  there  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
Lille,  originally  L'Isle,  whence  comes  the  expression  "lisle 
thread";  Valenciennes,  once  noted  for  its  lace;  and  Douai 
were  then  located  in  Flanders  and  Hainault,  although  now 
in  France.  By  1200  there  were  some  forty  towns  in  Flanders 
alone,  of  which  Bruges,  Ghent,  and  Ypres  were  the  chief. 
These  three  cities  ranked  with  the  great  Italian  communes 
in  their  size  and  wealth. 

Elsewhere  in  the  Low  Countries  cities  were  less  numerous. 
There  were  about  a  dozen  in  Brabant,  seven  in  Hainault, 
and  half  a  dozen  in  the  Bishopric  of  Liege.    In-  q^j^^j.  ^^^^g 
dustry  and  trade  developed  much  earlier  in  what  il?  the  Low 
is  now  Belgium  than  among  the  Dutch,  so  that 
in   1200  there  were  very  few  towns  in  what  is  now  the 
Netherlands.    The  rise  of  cities  on  any  large  scale  did  not 
occur  in  Holland  until  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth 
century.    Before  that  Utrecht  with  its  four  markets  a  year 
was  the  chief  commercial  center  in  the  north. 

The   great   Flemish   cities   probably   began   as   market- 
places under  the  shadow  of  castle  or  monastery.     By  the 
eleventh  century  they  were  flourishing  centers  Internal 
of  industry  and  commerce,  and  repeatedly  re-  the^Fiemish 
volted   against   the  authority  of  their  counts,  towns 
Their  inhabitants  made  up  four  classes,  soldiers,  landowners, 
merchants,  and  artisans,  of  whom  the  two  last  were  by  far 
the  more  numerous.  A  number  of  new  towns  with  harbors 
were  founded  by  the  Counts  of  Flanders  in  the  course  of 
the  twelfth  century.    Then,  too,  the  towns  received  many 
privileges  from  the  counts,  who  entrusted  the  administra- 
tion of  local  justice  and  of  municipal  affairs  in  large  measure 
to  the  rich  patrician  families,  from  whose  ranks  developed 
a  council  whose  members  held  office  for  life  and  elected  their 
successors.  The  magistrates  and  citizens  not  only  admin- 
istered the  internal  affairs  of  their  towns,  but  during  the 
thirteenth  century  were  usually  consulted  by  the  count 


/■ 


366        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

when  he  took  any  important  action  affecting  Flanders  as  a 
whole.  Before  the  twelfth  century  was  over,  the  lower 
classes  in  Ghent  had  expressed  their  discontent  with  the 
rule  of  the  richer  citizens  by  uprisings.  Toward  the  close  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  out  of  9300  burghers  listed  in  Bruges, 
8000  were  artisans  who  had  little  share  in  the  government. 
Before  lioo  the  Flemings  had  a  fair  of  their  own  at  Thu- 
rout,  and  went  beyond  their  borders  as  far  as  Coblenz  on 
Foreign  ^^^  Rhine  to  secure  wool  for  their  cloth  manu- 

trade  of  factures.     Early  in  the  twelfth  century  Italians 

were  found  in  Ypres,  and  by  the  close  of  that 
century  a  flourishing  trade  went  on  with  England,  France, 
Spain,  and  Portugal.  In  the  case  of  the  three  last-named 
countries  the  trade  chiefly  followed  land  routes.  The  most 
frequented  path  led  from  Bruges  by  old  Roman  roads  via 
Tournai,  Douai,  and  Arras  to  Bapaume.  This  town,  to-day 
an  insignificant  little  place,  was  then  the  chief  center  for 
the  collection  of  customs  duties  between  Flanders  and  the 
rest  of  France,  owing  to  its  situation  at  the  crossing  of  two 
ancient  Roman  roads  from  Arras  to  Rheims  and  from 
Cambrai  to  Amiens.  From  Bapaume  the  route  proceeded 
through  Peronne,  Roye,  Compiegne,  Paris,  Orleans,  where 
Joan  of  Arc  later  saved  France,  Tours,  with  its  shrine  of 
St.  Martin,  Poitiers,  where  the  oldest  Christian  church  in 
France  stands,  Limoges,  famous  since  the  twelfth  century 
for  its  enamels,  Bordeaux,  and  Bayonne  to  Pampeluna,  the 
capital  of  Navarre.  There  two  routes  branched  off  to 
Burgos  and  Lisbon  and  to  Barcelona  and  Valencia,  respec- 
tively. This  trade  developed  from  pilgrimages  to  the  shrine 
of  St.  James  at  Compostella  in  northern  Spain,  and  as  a 
result  of  the  part  taken  by  the  Flemish  in  expeditions  of 
1 147  and  1 1 89  to  aid  the  Portuguese  and  Castilians  against 
the  Moslems  of  Spain.  The  thirteenth  century  saw  com- 
merce by  sea  between  Flanders  and  Spain  and  southwestern 
/  France,  and  Spanish  merchants  were  then  permanently 
established  in  some  of  the  towns  of  the  Low  Countries. 
There  was  free  trade  between  the  northern  part  of  Germany 
and  the  Flemish  cities,  with  the  result  that  the  products  of 


FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  GERMAN  TOWNS    367 

the  Baltic  region  flowed  to  Flanders,  whence  they  were 
exported  to  England  and  to  the  south  and  west. 

In  commerce  Bruges  was  the  Venice  of  the  north,  resem- 
bling that  city  further  in  its  numerous  canals.  One  canal 
connected  it  with  the  sea,  an  arm  of  which  was  „ 

Bruges 

much  nearer  the  town  then  than  it  is  to-day.  A 
writer  of  the  early  thirteenth  century  tells  us  that  goods 
come  to  Bruges  from  Venice,  China,  the  Cyclades,  Hungary, 
Gascony,  and  England,  and  that  there  is  room  in  its  large 
quiet  harbor  at  Damme  for  the  entire  French  fleet.  Bruges 
was  eventually  to  displace  the  fairs  of  Champagne  as  the 
chief  place  of  exchange  between  the  north  and  south  of 
Europe.  In  1297  the  city  limits  had  to  be  enlarged,  and  the 
new  walls  then  built  were  four  and  a  half  miles  in  circum- 
ference. Bruges  at  that  time  had  a  population  triple  that  of 
London.  By  this  time,  too,  Bruges  and  Ghent  boasted  many 
houses  built  of  stone,  and  their  municipal  governments  ap- 
propriated money  for  paving  the  streets.  The  leading  gild  in 
Bruges  was  the  Hanse  of  London,  an  organization  whose 
members  were  very  rich  and  who  were  engaged  in  the  wool 
trade  with  England,  whence  Flanders  now  got  most  of  the 
raw  material  for  its  cloth  manufactures. 

If  Bruges  was  three  times  greater  than  London,  the  latter 
city  was  nevertheless  much  larger  than  any  other  English 
town.  The  population  of  England,  which  to-day  English 
about  equals  that  of  France,  then  was  only  a  ^^"^^^ 
small  fraction  of  the  dense  population  between  the  Rhine, 
the  Rhone,  and  the  Pyrenees.  England  was  then  primarily 
an  agricultural  country  and  towns  were  small.  Eighty  such 
boroughs  or  burgs  —  that  is,  fortified  places  containing 
dwelling-houses  —  are  named  in  Domesday  Book  (1085), 
but  of  forty-two  fairs  and  markets  mentioned  in  the  same 
record  only  eleven  were  held  in  boroughs.  Many  of  the 
towns,  however,  early  acquired  the  right  to  collect  their 
own  taxes  and  pay  a  lump  sum  to  the  royal  officials,  and  in 
the  course  of  time  numerous  privileges  and  charters  were 
bestowed  upon  them  by  the  English  kings.  By  the  thir- 
teenth century  they  had  become  centers  of  wealth  and  of 


368        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

local  Influence  and  were  summoned  to  send  representatives 
to  the  national  assembly  or  parliament  which  then  devel- 
oped. But  they  did  not  reach  the  height  of  their  medieval 
prosperity  and  independence  until  the  fifteenth  century. 
Other  prominent  ports  than  London  were  Southampton 
in  the  south,  and  Bristol  in  the  west.  Foreign  trade  was 
largely  carried  on  by  foreign  merchants,  as  is  illustrated  by 
the  Flemish  hanse  in  London  already  mentioned.  The  chief 
local  fairs  were  at  Winchester  in  the  south,  Stourbridge  and 
Walsingham  in  the  east. 

In  Germany  the  change  from  rural  to  town  life  did  not 
become  marked  until  the  thirteenth  century,  although  be- 
Rise  of  ^^^^  there  were  a  few  large  cities,  especially  on 

German         the    Rhine,    where    Basel,    Strassburg,    Speyer, 

towns  • 

Worms,  Mamz,  and  Cologne  all  dated  from 
Roman  times.  And  whereas  the  Lombard  communes  had 
established  their  practical  independence  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  under  Frederick  Barbarossa  in  the  twelfth  century, 
the  free  or  imperial  cities  of  Germany  did  not  acquire  their 
full  powers  of  government  until  the  confused  period  of 
anarchy  following  the  death  of  Frederick  II  in  the  second 
half  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  building  of  stone  walls, 
replacing  rude  earthworks  and  wooden  stockades  or  ruined 
Roman  fortifications,  and  enclosing  a  greater  area,  began 
in  a  few  cases  in  the  later  twelfth  century,  but  more  often 
in  the  thirteenth. 

Even  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  inhabitants  of  most 
German  towns  still  engaged  to  a  large  extent  in  agriculture. 
Their  eco-  and  much  of  the  land  included  within  the  new 
nomic  life  fortifications  was  still  given  over  to  farms  and 
gardens.  In  the  crowded  streets  of  the  center  of  the  town, 
however,  were  to  be  found  artisans  carrying  on  various 
industries,  and  in  the  oldest  and  largest  cities  the  gilds  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  twelfth  century.  Among  the  oldest 
craft  gilds  in  Germany  were  the  weavers  of  Mainz  (1099), 
the  fishermen  of  Worms  (1106),  the  shoemakers  of  Wiirz- 
burg  (1128),  the  makers  of  bed-ticks  and  the  turners  of 
Cologne,  and  the  cobblers,  tailors,  and  painters  of  Mag- 


FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  GERMAN   TOWNS    369 

deburg  from  the  twelfth  century.  Stone  houses  and  glass 
windows  did  not  come  in  until  after  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, although  roofs  of  straw  or  shingles  were  already  being 
replaced  by  tiles.  The  architects,  furniture-makers,  and 
wood-carvers  of  German  towns  in  the  thirteenth  century 
gave  little  evidence  of  artistic  ability.  In  general  Germany  . 
was  at  this  time  far  behind  Italy  and  France  in  commerce, 
industry,  art,  and  wealth. 

There  were  three  leading  regions  of  urban  life  in  medieval 
Germany.  One  was  the  Rhine  Valley;  another  was  south- 
ern Germany,  where  Augsburg,  Bamberg,  Wiirz-  (^i^jgf  groups 
burg,  and  Niirnberg  were  destined  to  become  of  German 
very  wealthy  by  their  trade  across  the  Alps  with 
Venice.  The  third  group  consisted  of  towns  of  the  northern 
coast,  like  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Liibeck,  which  exploited 
the  fisheries  and  commerce  of  the  North  and  Baltic  Seas. 
Wisby,  situated  on  the  large  island  of  Gotland  off  the  Swed- 
ish coast  in  the  Baltic,  was  a  very  flourishing  trading  town 
which  now  became  German  in  character.  Earlier,  judging 
from  the  many  Arabian  and  Anglo-Saxon  coins  found  there, 
it  must  have  been  an  important  station  in  the  traffic  of  the 
Northmen  with  the  Orient  by  way  of  the  Russian  rivers. 
Though  now  deserted,  its  walls,  towers,  and  ruined  churches 
remain  as  a  picturesque  testimony  to  its  medieval  grandeur. 
In  Denmark,  too,  and  elsewhere  along  the  coasts  of  the 
Baltic  towns  were  numerous  by  the  thirteenth  century. 
Already  in  the  thirteenth  century  German  cities  were 
forming  leagues  for  their  mutual  protection.  Prominent 
among  these  were  the  Rhine  League  and  the  Hanseatic 
League,  of  which  we  shall  have  more  to  say  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages. 

The  growth  toward  self-government  in  a  German  town    y 
during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  example  of  Strassburg.    At  first  How  a  self- 
there  were  practically  no  free  inhabitants  and  governing 

1       1  •  1  rr^i        mumcipal- 

every  one  was  dependent  upon  the  bishop.  The  ity  arose  in 
expressions,  "citizens"  and  "burghers,"  were  Strassburg 
first  employed  in  the  twelfth  century,  but  all  inhabitants 


370        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

except  Jews  and  absolute  serfs  or  slaves  of  the  bishop  were 
called  citizens,  although  many  of  them  as  yet  were  not  fully 
free.  Gradually  a  city  law  grew  up  distinct  from  the  mano- 
rial law,  or  Hojrecht,  of  the  bishop,  to  which  most  of  the 
inhabitants  had  once  been  subject.  Finally  the  Hofrecht 
disappeared  entirely  and  all  the  citizens  became  personally 
free,  but  there  was  no  corporate  body  of  citizens  until  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  last  step  was  the  union  of  the  citi- 
zens and  their  winning  of  self-government  by  a  struggle 
with  their  prelate  in  1262. 

In  our  discussion  of  medieval  towns  we  have  combined 
certain  developments  which  did  not  necessarily  always  go 
„  together,  but  which  were  too  closely  associated 

to  separate  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases.  First, 
the  growth  of  towns  as  centers  of  population  and  of  indus- 
try and  trade.  Second,  the  rise  of  towns  as  separate  units 
in  medieval  society  and  feudal  politics,  as  distinct  entities 
existing  on  terms  of  equality  along  with  feudal  lords,  bish- 
ops, and  abbots,  and  regulating  their  own  internal  affairs 
with  the  same  freedom  from  outside  interference  that  a 
lord  enjoyed  in  governing  his  manors  or  an  abbot  in  ruling 
his  monastery.  Third,  the  advance  of  the  merchant  and 
industrial  classes  in  the  towns  to  a  position  of  influence  and 
a  share  in  the  government.  But  some  towns,  like  Paris,  that 
were  large  in  population  and  noteworthy  for  their  business 
life  and  manufactures,  were  still  not  free  politically.  On 
the  other  hand,  many  places  that  were  scarcely  more  than 
villages  had  gained  independence  and  self-government. 
Again,  many  self-governing  towns  were  far  from  democratic 
and  excluded  the  lower  classes  from  office  or  even  from  the 
suffrage.  Finally,  while  the  chief  magistracies  and  councils 
in  the  towns  of  different  countries  have  been  mentioned  in 
a  general  way,  no  description  has  been  attempted  of  the 
numerous  minor  offices,  nor  of  the  many  special  boards  and 
advisory  bodies. 

It  should  also  be  realized  that  there  was  almost  infinite 
variety  in  the  forms  of  government,  the  local  laws,  and  the 
charter  provisions  of  the  many  towns.    Indeed,  in  the  history 


FRENCH,  FLEMISH,  ENGLISH,  GERMAN  TOWNS    371 

of  a  single  town  like  Florence,  as  we  shall  see  later,  one 
finds  a  bewildering  variety  and  a  series  of  kaleido-  Variety  of 
scopic  constitutional  changes,  whose  meaning  it  stkutions' 
is  almost  impossible  to  follow  to-day.  But  as  the  and  customs 
Dutch  historian  Blok  has  said,  "All  these  differences  in  the 
arrangement  and  the  development  of  the  medieval  cities 
are  new  proofs  of  the  inexhaustible  riches  of  medieval  life, 
of  the  infinite  variety  in  the  society  of  that  time,  deviating 
so  much  from  the  greater  monotony  of  our  epoch.  The 
endeavor  to  find  one  form  for  the  medieval  cities  is  a  mis- 
take against  the  very  nature  of  the  Middle  Ages."  Or,  as 
Hare  says  of  the  cities  of  Italy,  "They  are  wonderfully  dif- 
ferent, those  great  cities,  quite  as  if  they  belonged  to  differ- 
ent countries,  and  so  indeed  they  have,  for  there  has  been 
no  national  history  common  to  all,  but  each  has  its  own  in- 
dividual sovereignty,  its  own  chronicle,  its  own  politics, 
domestic  and  foreign,  its  own  saints,  its  own  phase  of  archi- 
tecture, often  its  own  language,  always  its  own  proverbs, 
its  own  superstitions,  and  its  own  ballads." 


372        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

French  Towns. 

Bemont  and  Monod,  Medieval  Europe  from  3QS  to  1270;  chap,  xxiii  (pp. 
375-90),  on  the  rise  of  French  towns. 

Clive  Day,  A  History  of  Commerce  (1907);  pp.  31-78  deal  with  the  rise 
of  trade  from  the  year  1000  on,  with  maps  at  pp.  58  and  66  illustrating 
the  tolls  on  the  Loire  and  the  fairs  of  Champagne. 

Luchaire,  Social  France  at  the  Time  of  Philip  Augustus  (English  transla- 
tion by  Krehbiel,  1912);  pp.  404-15  on  the  emancipation  of  the  peas- 
ants; pp.  415-28  on  the  towns  and  burgher  class. 

Giry  and  Reville,  Emancipation  of  the  Medieval  Towns  (English  trans- 
lation by  Bates  and  Titsworth,  1907) ;  a  pamphlet  of  67  pages  dealing 
mainly  with  French  towns. 

European  History  Studies,  ed.  F.  M.  Fling,  vol.  ii,  no.  8,  "The  Rise  of 
Cities";  six  source  selections  on  the  communes  and  town  charters  of 
northern  France.  Compare  the  three  charters  of  Lorris,  Soissons,  and 
Beauvais. 

Flemish  and  Dutch  Towns. 

See  the  reading  in  Blok's  History  of  the  People  0}  the  Netherlands  at  the 
close  of  chapter  xvii. 

German  Towns. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  358-65;  an  English  trans- 
lation of  Lamprecht's  passage  on  city  life  in  Germany. 

W.  King,  Chronicles  of  Three  Free  Cities  (1914);  PP-  314-26  on  Wisby 
and  Lijbeck. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History, 
pp.  592-604,  charters  and  laws  of  German  towns; 
pp.  604-12,  leagues  and  agreements  of  German  towns; 
pp.  574-78,  Jews  in  German  towns. 

The  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England, 

pp.  ix-xxii,  usury  and  relations  of  the  Jews  and  the  king; 
pp.  307-16,  Jewish  business  and  deeds; 
pp.  337-42,  manners  and  customs. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL   OF   LEARNING 

In  western  Christian  Europe  in  the  course  of  the  eleventh, 
twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries  there  developed  a  new 
civilization.  Feudal  enterprise,  church  reform,  a  new 
and  Christian  expansion  were  forces  that  con-  civilization 
tributed  to  it.  Its  material  and  economic  and  social  side  we 
have  seen  in  the  rise  of  towns  and  trade  and  industry,  the 
emancipation  of  a  large  part  of  the  common  people,  and  the 
growth  of  municipal  institutions  and  liberties.  We  now  turn 
to  parallel  developments  in  art,  literature,  education,  sci- 
ence, and  thought. 

The  new  culture  in  these  fields  was  a  curious  mixture  of 
things  old  and  new.  It  was  in  part  a  revival  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  antiquity,  which  had  declined  so  in  the  Nature  of 
late  Roman  Empire  and  had  almost  passed  away  medieval 
during  the  early  Middle  Ages.  It  was  in  part  a 
breaking  away  from  ancient  traditions  and  styles  and  the 
beginning  of  modern  methods  in  speaking,  writing,  investi- 
gating, and  teaching.  It  was  in  large  measure  the  product 
of  the  medieval  Church  and  clergy,  the  expression  of  the 
religious  motive  and  of  Christian  interests.  Yet,  as  the 
communes  were  antagonistic  to  the  clergy,  so  in  the  science 
and  literature  of  the  period  we  see  the  rise  of  an  independent 
secular  spirit.  Finally,  the  artists  and  the  scholars  of  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  learned  and  borrowed  from 
the  Byzantines  and  the  Arabs  as  well  as  from  the  ancients 
and  the  church  fathers.  But  their  own  output  was  neither 
classical  nor  patristic  nor  Byzantine  nor  Moorish;  nor  was 
it  as  yet  wholly  modem  in  character;  it  was  medieval. 

The  scanty  learning  and  literature  of  the  early  Middle 
Ages  had  been  limited  to  writing  in  Latin  by  clergymen, 
and  for  centuries  there  were  only  a  few  names  of  consequence, 
such  as  Gregory  the  Great,  Isidore,  Bede,  Alcuin,  and  John 


374        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  Scot.  For  a  time  after  the  break-up  of  Charlemagne's 
Latin  learn-  empire  this  State  of  decHne  continued  and  even 
eratureof  seemed  to  grow  worse.  Then  progress  becomes 
the  tenth  gradually  apparent.  Some  one  has  figured  out 
eleveTtV  that  fewer  names  of  writers  have  come  down  to 
centuries  ^g  from  the  tenth  than  from  any  other  cen- 
tury between  Charlemagne  and  modern  times.  In  Italy, 
where  cities  were  first  to  develop  and  where  we  might  expect 
to  find  the  most  education,  on  the  contrary  well  into  the 
eleventh  century  books  were  scarce,  one  had  to  go  a  long 
way  to  reach  a  school,  and  there  were  many  complaints  of 
the  ignorance  of  the  lower  clergy  and  against  men  of  no 
education  in  high  places  in  the  Church.  The  complaints, 
however,  indicate  an  awakening  intellectual  conscience. 
But  knowledge  was  at  a  low  ebb  and  what  literature  there 
was  consisted  of  barren  rhetoric.  The  Latin  poems  of  the 
time  seem  mere  exercises  in  metre  and  language  without 
feeling  and  genius.  There  was  still  a  strong  feeling  that  a 
Christian  ought  not  to  study  too  deeply  in  classical  litera- 
ture and  philosophy,  and  even  in  the  field  of  theology  there 
was  no  writing  of  real  importance. 

North  of  the  Alps  names  of  scholars  were  scarcer  than 
narratives  of  miracles  in  the  chronicles  of  the  time.  Bruno, 
Bruno  and  the  brother  of  Otto  the  Great,  was  one  of  these 
Hrosvita  j-^j-g  apparitions.  His  biographer,  writing  imme- 
diately after  his  death,  tells  us  that  the  chief  aim  of  Bruno's 
own  writing  and  of  his  teaching  at  the  palace  school  was 
the  cultivation  of  a  good  Latin  style,  and  that  he  read  the 
ancient  tragedies  and  comedies  through  gravely  without 
tears  or  laughter.  "He  thought  that  their  meaning  was 
worthless;  the  style  was  what  he  considered  all  important." 
A  German  nun,  Hrosvita,  who  died  about  the  year  looo,  not 
only  read  the  plays  of  Terence,  but  composed  some  dramas 
herself,  the  first  that  have  come  down  to  us  since  Seneca's. 
Although  these  seem  very  stiff  and  crude  to  the  modern 
reader,  they  possessed  more  plot  and  human  interest  than 
the  liturgic  spectacles  which  were  presented  about  this  time 
by  the  clergy  in  cathedrals  and  monasteries  in  connection 


THE   MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL   OF   LEARNING     375 

with  the  Christmas  and  Easter  services,  but  which  devel- 
oped later  into  the  important  mystery  and  morality  plays. 
Hrosvita's  plots  are  either  legends  of  Christian  martyrs  or 
love  stories  in  which  celibacy,  not  marriage,  is  considered 
"a  happy  ending." 

In  Gaul  Gerbert  was  the  greatest  scholar  of  the  tenth 
century.  He  studied  grammar  in  a  monastery  in  Auvergne, 
and  then  went  to  the  county  of  Barcelona  in   „    , 

.  1    .     1  M      1  •  Gerbert 

northern  Spam  and  imbibed  some  mathematics, 
a  field  in  which  he  later  wrote  treatises.  He  became  school- 
master in  the  cathedral  at  Rheims  and  for  a  year  was  abbot 
of  a  monastery  in  Lombardy.  Afterwards  he  twice  tried  to 
obtain  copies  of  scientific  manuscripts  which  he  had  seen  in 
its  library.  Gerbert  was  an  attractive  letter-writer  and  his 
correspondence  is  important  for  the  history  of  the  times, 
with  whose  rulers,  especially  the  last  Carolingians,  the  first 
Capetians  and  the  emperors,  Otto  II  and  Otto  III,  he  was 
closely  connected.  He  became  an  archbishop  and  finally 
Pope  Sylvester  II,  which  indicates  that  the  age  at  least 
respected  scholarship.  Later  medieval  legend  made  of  him 
a  magician  and  necromancer,  but  he  seems  to  have  done 
nothing  more  wonderful  than  to  construct  an  abacus  and 
build  a  pipe  organ. 

Gerbert's  clever  letters  dealing  with  contemporary  events 
lead  us  to  note  an  improvement  in  the  writing  of  history 
which  became  manifest  in  the  late  tenth  and  improve- 
early  eleventh  century.    Several  writers  now  dis-  historical 
played  a  more  animated  and  individual  style  writing 
than  the  ordinary  dry  and  meager  monastic  annals  of  the 
early  Middle  Ages  or  than  the  empty  rhetoric  of  the  tenth- 
century  poets.   Widukind  narrated  with  spirit  and  vigor  the 
story  of  his  own  Saxon  people.   Liutprand  the  Lombard  tells 
of  his  trips  to  Constantinople  and  has  a  good  grasp  of  the 
general  state  of  Europe  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century. 
Thietmar  records  the  story  of  the  German  kings  and  of 
his  Bishopric  of  Merseburg  to  ioi8.    Raoul  Glaber,  writing 
about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,   entertains  us 
hugely  by  his  pot-pourri  of  portents  and  disasters,  marvels 


376        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

and  mysteries  of  the  preceding  sixty  years,  and,  ere  he 
closes,  confides  an  account  of  his  early  sinful  life  and  subse- 
quent monastic  adventures.  Hermann  the  Lame,  of  Reiche- 
nau,  who  died  in  1054,  and  Marianus  Scotus  (1026-1083), 
an  Irish  monk  who  wandered  to  Germany,  wrote  world  his- 
tories, and  they  are  noted  for  their  chronological  researches. 
With  these  men  and  with  Adam  of  Bremen,  who  introduces 
us  to  the  history  and  geography  of  northern  Europe,  and 
Lambert  of  Hersfeld,  who  gives  a  detailed  and  well-written, 
though  partisan,  account  of  the  eventful  years  1073-1077, 
we  find  the  writing  of  history  well  developed  before  the  time 
of  the  First  Crusade.    All  these  works  were  in  Latin. 

A  large  number  of  the  famous  men  of  the  next  generation 
were  said  to  have  been  pupils  of  Gerbert.  One  of  them 
Famous  praised  his  master  as  "a  man  of  lofty  genius  and 

the^eleventh  wonderful  eloquence,  by  whose  light,  as  of  a 
century  brightly  burning  torch,  all  Gaul,  already  grow- 

ing dark,  was  again  illuminated."  Gerbert's  school  at  Rheims 
was  followed  in  the  eleventh  century  by  famous  teachers 
or  cathedral  schools  in  other  French  towns  such  as  Chartres, 
Angers,  Paris,  Laon,  Orleans,  Poitiers,  and  Perigueux. 
Some  monasteries  also  were  noted  for  their  instruction,  such 
as  the  famous  Cluny  in  Burgundy  and  Bee  in  Normandy, 
whence  William  the  Conqueror  took  his  first  archbishop, 
the  learned  Italian  lawyer  Lanfranc.  Both  the  teachers  and 
alumni  of  these  ecclesiastical  schools  rose  to  high  positions 
in  the  Church  and  the  State;  but  what  was  taught  and 
learned  at  these  places  seems  very  scanty  to  us  to-day.  The 
main  point,  however,  was  that  the  students  thought  that 
they  were  learning  something  and  sang  the  praises  of  their 
instructors  forever  after.  There  was  at  least,  therefore,  a 
growing  enthusiasm  for  learning. 

Presently  the  amount  of  learning  also  began  to  increase. 
Progress  in  The  first  notable  advance  was  in  medicine, 
medicine:        j^  northern  Africa  about  1015  was  bom  Con- 

Constan-  .  ,  . 

tinus  stantine,  usually  known  by  his  Latin  name,  Con- 

Africanus  stantinus  Africanus,  from  his  birthplace.  After 
many  years  of  travel  in  the  Orient  in  quest  of  knowledge,  he 


THE  MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING     377 

came  to  the  court  of  the  Norman  ruler  of  southern  Italy, 
Robert  Guiscard,  at  Salerno.  Later  he  retired  to  the  famous 
monastery  of  Monte  Cassino,  founded  by  St.  Benedict  him- 
self, and  there  he  died  in  1087.  During  this  residence  in 
Italy  he  composed  several  medical  treatises  in  Latin  which 
were  in  large  measure  merely  translations  of  the  works  of 
Arabian  physicians,  but  which  none  the  less  helped  to  in- 
crease the  knowledge  of  the  Christian  West  where  Constan- 
tinus  Africanus  was  henceforth  a  much-cited  authority.  His 
presence  at  Salerno  also  proved  a  stimulus  to  a  school  of 
medicine  which  had  already  existed  there  on  a  small  scale 
among  the  monks  and  which  now  for  a  time  became  the 
most  famous  in  the  Latin  world. 

A  legal  revival  on  a  much  larger  scale  in  northern  Italy 
soon  followed  that  in  medicine  in  the  south.  The  rush  of 
law  students  to  Bologna  at  the  very  end  of  the  Revival  of 
eleventh  century  was  an  intellectual  movement  law'^t^ 
contemporaneous  with  the  First  Crusade.  Some  Bologna 
acquaintance  with  Justinian's  law  books  seems  to  have  sur- 
vived in  Italy  through  the  early  Middle  Ages,  but  it  was 
only  at  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  that  the  old  Roman 
law  proper,  set  forth  in  the  Digest,  began  to  be  studied  with 
scientific  thoroughness  by  students  from  all  over  Europe, 
who  flocked  to  the  law  school  at  Bologna  presided  over  by 
the  great  Irnerius.  He  was  the  first  of  a  group  or  series  of 
men  known  as  the  "glossators"  or  commentators  upon  the 
Roman  law,  from  the  glosses  or  marginal  notes  which  they 
made  in  their  copies  of  the  Digest.  From  1 100  on  the  Roman 
or  civil  law  {ius  civilis)  became  an  increasingly  important 
force  in  western  Europe.  We  have  already  noted  its  influ- 
ence at  the  Diet  of  Roncaglia  held  by  Frederick  Barbarossa. 
Those  who  had  studied  law  at  Bologna  or  Pavia  found  lucra- 
tive posts  open  to  them  in  both  Church  and  State,  for  canon 
as  well  as  civil  law  was  taught.  It  was  a  Bolognese  professor, 
the  monk  Gratian,  who  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  made  a  compilation  of  the  canon  law  which  hence- 
forth superseded  the  older  collections  as  the  standard  work. 
The  original  title  of  his  book  was  The  Harmony  oj  Conflicting 


378        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Canons  {Concordantia  discordantium  canonum),  but  it  was 
usually  more  briefly  called  the  Decretum.  Of  ecclesiastical 
courts  and  canon  law  we  have  already  treated.  European 
universities  to-day  still  give  courses  in  canon  law  and  grant 
the  degree  of  "doctor  of  both  laws,"  J.U.D.  {juris  utriusgue 
doctor). 

North  of  the  Alps  in  the  early  twelfth  century  teachers 
had  become  much  more  numerous  than  before.  Indeed,  one 
Education  writer  of  the  time,  William  of  Conches  in  Nor- 
outside  mandy,  complained  bitterly  that  education  had 

^^  already  become  too  popular,   that  many  were 

teaching  without  adequate  preparation,  that  most  students 
took  easy  courses  with  popular  professors  instead  of  with 
the  truly  profound  and  original  scholars,  and  yet  that  every 
teacher's  time  was  so  occupied  with  classes  that  he  had 
scant  leisure  left  for  research  and  publication.  This  ten- 
dency to  criticize  existing  educational  conditions  was  one 
of  the  marks  of  the  new  age,  and  we  shall  meet  further 
instances  of  it. 

What  were  the  subjects  taught  in  these  schools  north  of 
the  Alps?  One  of  William's  contemporaries  speaks  of  him 
A  brief  ^^  ^  teacher  of  "Grammar";  that  is,  of  Latin 

classical  literature.     We  also  know  that  about  this  time 

there  was  a  school  at  Chartres  devoted  especially 
to  the  literary  study  of  the  Latin  classics  and  to  the  culti- 
vation of  a  good  Latin  style.  North  as  well  as  south  of  the 
Alps,  however,  the  new  development  was  to  be  of  a  learned 
rather  than  a  literary  character.  William's  extant  work,  for 
example,  deals  with  philosophy  and  astronomy,  although  it 
occasionally  quotes  classical  literature. 

To  a  great  extent  William  follows  the  ancient  Greek  phil- 
osopher Plato  in  his  interpretation  of  the  world,  although  he 
Platonic  also  cites  Christian  writings  and  various  books 
philosophy  ^£  astronomy.  Yet  he  probably  knew  Plato's 
astronomy  doctrines  only  indirectly  through  other  writers 
and  through  Latin  translations  of  some  of  Plato's  works. 
William's  little  book  begins  by  defining  philosophy  and 
describing  its  method  of  inquiry;  he  then  argues  that  the 


THE  MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING     379 

world  was  made  by  God  and  discusses  the  Trinity  at  some 
length;  next  he  considers  other  spiritual  beings  in  the  uni- 
verse, such  as  the  demons  in  whom  medieval  men  generally 
believed ;  and  then  he  treats  of  the  elements  of  which  natu- 
ral objects  are  composed.  Here  he  makes  use  of  the  writings 
of  Constantinus  Africanus,  who,  while  still  accepting  the 
old  Greek  theory  of  only  four  elements,  had  explained  that 
the  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water  which  we  see  and  feel  are  not 
the  pure  elements,  but,  like  all  other  objects  in  nature,  are 
compounds  made  up  of  all  four  elements.  Finally,  William 
discusses  in  more  detail  the  sky  and  stars,  and  the  earth 
and  its  human  occupants. 

Other  interests  of  the  learned  world  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury are  illustrated  by  the  career  of  Abelard  (1079-1142), 
the  oldest  son  of  the  lord  of  a  village  in  Brittany, 
who  left  castle,  the  chase,  and  the  profession  of 
arms,  to  pursue  learning.  He  was  especially  interested  in 
dialectic  or  logic,  the  art  of  reasoning  and  disputation.  This 
was  a  subject  not  unlike  the  debating  of  our  day  except  that 
the  questions  argued  were  philosophical  and  theological 
rather  than  political  and  economic  as  in  intercollegiate  de- 
bates of  the  present  —  questions  about  the  workings  of  the 
mind  rather  than  about  money  matters,  and  questions  con- 
cerning the  other  world  rather  than  this.  Abelard  found 
many  places  where  teachers  were  instructing  large  bands  of 
students  in  the  art  of  logic,  and  he  himself  before  long  be- 
came a  lecturer  of  great  renown  at  Paris. 

Dialectic  was  based  upon  the  treatises  of  Aristotle  in  logic 
which  had  been  translated  by  Boethius  and  Porphyry  at  the 
close  of  the  Roman  Empire.    Teachers  and  stu-  Medieval 
dents  of  dialectic  were  now  exercised  over  such  nomlnaHsts 
questions  as  whether  there  is  any  such  reality  as  and  realists 
color  independent  of  the  colored  objects.    In  other  words, 
whether  we  merely  have  red  paint  and  red  cows  and  red 
sunrises,  or  whether  there  is  a  redness  apart  from  particular 
objects.    Or,  furthermore,  whether  there  is  an  ideal  beauty 
and  an  abstract  justice  which  form  our  standards  in  deter- 
mining whether  individual  objects  are  beautiful  and  whether 


38o        THE  HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

individual  actions  are  just.  Again,  men  differ  in  complexion, 
size,  and  temperament;  is  there  any  human  genus  and 
species  which  includes  them  all,  or  any  ideal  man  after  whom 
they  are  all  patterned?  Or,  is  humanity  a  mere  collective 
word  or  simply  a  conception  attained  by  our  minds?  Such 
was  the  problem  of  universals  agitating  the  dialecticians 
when  Abelard  began  his  education.  Those  who  regarded 
such  abstract  and  collective  terms  as  mere  names  were 
called  "Nominalists."  Those  who  held  them  to  be  true  sub- 
stances, although  perhaps  substances  of  an  incorporeal  and 
spiritual  nature,  were  called  "Realists."  Those  who,  like 
Abelard  himself,  took  a  middle  course,  were  called  "Con- 
ceptualists."  All  this  discussion  was  a  distant  echo  and 
revival  of  the  theory  of  ideas,  in  which  Plato,  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  before  in  the  Academy  at  Athens,  had  instructed 
Aristotle  and  his  other  disciples,  and  which  is  still  reflected 
in  modern  idealism. 

The  theory  of  spiritual  substances  was  very  welcome  to 
the  Christian  thinkers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  since  it  con- 
T.  ,    .       ,     firmed  their  belief  in  a  human  soul  separate  from 

Relation  of  i    •  i  r     i 

dialectic  to  the  mortal  body  and  m  a  host  of  demons  and 
t  eoogy  angels.  That  substance  was  something  distinct 
from  external  appearance  and  particular  qualities  was  also 
an  attractive  thought  to  them.  It  enabled  them  to  explain 
that  in  the  sacrament  of  the  mass,  while  the  bread  and  wine 
might  retain  their  outward  qualities  such  as  are  appar- 
ent to  the  senses  of  sight,  taste,  and  touch,  yet  their  inner 
nature  had  been  "transubstantiated"  into  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ.  This  illustrates  what  important  bearings 
logic  or  dialectic  might  have  upon  theology. 

Abelard  himself  soon  gave  up  teaching  for  a  time  In  order 
to  study  theology  at  Laon  with  a  master  called  Anselm. 
Abelard  as  This  was  not,  however,  the  famous  Anselm., 
a  theologian  Archblshop  of  Canterbury  under  William  Rufus 
and  Henry  I,  who  put  forth  the  ontologlcal  argument  for 
the  existence  of  God.  Abelard,  who  formerly  had  made  his 
teachers  in  logic  a  deal  of  trouble  by  frequently  disagreeing 
and  arguing  with  them,  now  soon  became  disgusted  with 


THE  MEDIEVAL  REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING      381 

Anselm  whom  he  regarded  as  a  mere  rhetorician  without 
ideas.  He  asked  him  many  questions  and  was  unable  to 
get  satisfactory  answers.  A  favorite  method  in  teaching 
theology  then  was  for  the  lecturer  to  read  some  book  of  the 
Bible  or  work  of  a  church  father  and  make  running  com- 
ments upon  it,  not  unlike  the  glosses  of  the  Bolognese  doc- 
tors of  law.  Soon  Abelard  was  expounding  difficult  pas- 
sages in  the  Book  of  Ezekiel  to  Anselm's  students  instead 
of  attending  the  master's  lectures. 

Abelard  now  received  a  call  to  teach  at  the  cathedral 
school  of  Paris,  out  of  which  was  to  develop  a  great  univer- 
sity, and  great  crowds  attended  his  lectures.  But  his  tragic 
love  affair  with  Heloise  blighted  the  latter  part  of  his  career 
and  his  days  were  henceforth  passed  more  in  monasteries 
and  hermitages  then  in  the  public  eye,  although  he  con- 
tinued to  teach.  St.  Bernard  made  him  considerable  trouble 
by  attacking  some  of  his  views  as  heretical.  But  the  fact 
that  those  who  displayed  too  much  originality  in  expound- 
ing the  mysteries  of  the  faith  were  liable  to  be  forced  to 
retract  their  theories  in  no  way  diminished  the  fascination 
which  theological  discussion  had  for  the  medieval  clergy. 

Abelard 's  chief  contribution  to  the  future  of  scholasti- 
cism, as,  from  its  origin  in  the  schools,  the  medieval  study 
of  philosophy  and  theology  is  called,  was,  aside  The 
from  the  general  enthusiasm  which  he  aroused  ^^^  ^^  ^^^ 
for  clever  discussion  and  the  crowds  of  students  that  he 
drew  to  Paris,  his  method  of  investigation.  Writers  of  the 
early  Middle  Ages,  like  undergraduates  taking  notes  on 
collateral  reading,  often  simply  copied  passages  from  Augus- 
tine's City  of  God  and  other  works  in  their  meager  libraries. 
By  stringing  together  a  series  of  such  quotations  they  flat- 
tered themselves  that  they  had  made  a  new  book.  But 
Abelard,  instead  of  merely  copying,  meant  to  compare  and 
criticize  the  writings  and  opinions  of  the  past.  This  is  well 
illustrated  by  his  work  called  Sic  et  Non.  In  the  introduc- 
tion he  holds  that  there  are  many  important  theological 
questions  still  open  to  discussion,  and  that  the  best  way  to 
reach  the  truth  is  to  adopt  an  open-minded,  skeptical,  and 


382        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

critical  attitude.  "The  master-key  to  knowledge  is  to  keep 
asking  questions,"  says  this  medieval  Socrates.  Conse- 
quently he  puts  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  questions  about 
the  nature  of  God  and  other  theological  matters,  and  col- 
lects under  each  heading  statements  from  patristic  litera- 
ture both  for  (sic)  and  against  {non)  the  view  in  question. 
By  thus  showing  the  church  fathers  often  in  apparent  dis- 
agreement, he  demonstrated  the  need  of  further  discussion 
and  investigation  in  order  to  reach  the  truth  in  theology. 
He  recognized  that  apparent  obscurities  might  often  be 
cleared  up  and  that  seeming  contradictions  might  be  recon- 
ciled by  a  more  careful  consideration  of  the  passages  or  by 
excluding  apocryphal  works  and  by  remedying  the  mistakes 
of  copyists.  But  this,  he  would  argue,  simply  shows  the 
need  of  more  intensive  study.  However,  he  further  held 
that,  except  for  the  Bible  itself,  previous  Christian  writings 
were  of  unequal  value  and  must  not  be  unquestioningly 
accepted  as  absolute  truth. 

If  Abelard  meant  to  discourage  his  age  from  consulting 
past  authorities  on  all  sorts  of  questions,  he  did  not  succeed. 
Scholasti-  But  his  method  of  putting  fonv^ard  a  problem  for 
cism  debate  and  solution  and  then  finding  all  the  state- 

ments pro  and  C07t  bearing  on  the  question  that  one  could 
in  past  literature  —  this  became  a  favorite  method  of  medie- 
val teachers  and  writers.  Only,  instead  of  leaving  the  prob- 
lem unsolved,  as  the  Sic  et  Non  does,  they  went  on  to  cope 
with  the  arguments  on  both  sides  and  to  attempt  to  reach 
a  correct  solution.  Such  writings,  together  with  commen- 
taries on  the  authorities,  became  the  staple  products  of 
medieval  scholasticism.  Gratian's  Harmony  of  Conflicting 
Canons  was  such  a  work.  A  year  or  two  after  it  came  out, 
Peter  Lombard,  who  had  attended  Abelard's  lectures,  pub- 
lished his  famous  SententicB,  henceforth  the  standard  text- 
book in  scholastic  theology.  The  title  Sententicd,  commonly 
translated  as  "Sentences,"  in  this  case  refers  to  the  "opin- 
ions" or  authoritative  utterances  of  the  church  fathers  upon 
the  various  questions  of  the  Christian  faith,  which  Peter 
has  collected,  condensed,  and  classified  in  one  volume. 


THE  MEDIEVAL  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING      383 

While  Abelard  was  attending  the  lectures  of  dialecticians 
and  theologians  in  different  parts  of  northern  France,  a  con- 
temporary of  his  with  a  similar  name,  Adelard,  Adelard  of 
of  Bath,  in  England,  became  dissatisfied  with  Bath:  math- 
"the  wordy  war  of  sophisms  and  the  affected  natural 
elocution  of  rhetoric"  prevalent  in  "the  schools  ^^^^^^^ 
of  Gaul,"  and  went  to  the  Greeks  and  Saracens  to  acquire 
fuller  knowledge.  His  especial  interest  was  in  natural  science 
and  mathematics.  He  was  one  of  the  first  translators  into 
Latin  of  the  Arabic  versions  of  Greek  and  Oriental  science 
and  philosophy.  He  translated  the  geometry  of  Euclid,  and 
he  also  wrote  a  work  entitled  Questions  about  Nature,  in 
which  he  set  forth  the  views  of  his  Arabian  masters  and  per- 
haps some  discoveries  of  his  own.  In  this  book  he  justifies 
the  study  of  natural  science  against  narrow  religious  preju- 
dice. He  also  scolds  his  nephew,  with  whom  he  is  repre- 
sented as  engaged  in  dialogue,  for  excessive  trust  in  authori- 
ties and  tells  him  that  reason  and  experiment  are  the  best 
methods  of  reaching  the  truth.  In  trying  to  answer  the 
questions  about  plants,  animals,  and  other  things  in  nature 
which  his  nephew  puts  to  him,  Adelard  often  makes  incor- 
rect statements,  some  of  which  sound  ridiculous  to  us.  But 
sometimes  he  displays  surprisingly  correct  knowledge;  as  in 
explaining  how  far  a  stone  would  fall  if  dropped  into  a  hole 
running  through  the  center  of  the  earth,  and  why  water 
will  not  readily  flow  out  of  a  small  aperture  at  the  bottom 
of  a  vessel  which  is  elsewhere  tightly  sealed. 

Roger,  the   Norman  ruler  of  Sicily  from  1130  to  1154, 
who  introduced  the  manufacture  of  silk  in  Palermo,  was 
especially  interested  in  geography.    He  collected   Roger  of 
all  the  Arabian  books  on  the  subject  that  he  S;cily  and 

the  geog- 

could  find  and  eagerly  questioned  travelers  who  raphy  of 
came  jto  his  court  and  took  notes  on  their  ac-  E*^"^' 
counts.  Finally  the  Arabian  traveler  and  geographer  Edrisi 
was  given  the  task  of  combining  these  materials  into  a  great 
work  on  the  geography  of  the  world.  Roger  told  him,  "I 
want  a  description  of  the  earth  made  after  direct  observa- 
tion, not  after  books."    The  result  was  a  work  finished  in 


384        THE   HISTORY   OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

1 1 54  and  superior  to  any  previous  medieval  geography  either 
Christian  or  Arabian. 

The  employment  of  Edrisi  by  Roger  shows  us  that  the 
Church  was  not  the  sole  center  and  source  of  learning.  We 
Princel  have  also  seen  Constantinus  Africanus  at  the 

patronage       court   of   the    Norman  Robert   Guiscard.    Wil- 

earning  jj^^  ^£  Conches,  too,  had  found  a  patron  in 
Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  the  father  of  Henry  II  of  England, 
and  himself  Duke  of  Normandy  as  well  as  Count  of  Anjou; 
and  Adelard  of  Bath  in  1130  received  a  sum  of  money  from 
the  government  of  Henry  I  of  England.  Roger's  patronage 
of  learning  in  Sicily  was  repeated  there  in  the  first  half  of 
the  thirteenth  century  by  the  cultured  court  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick  II,  of  whose  scientific  curiosity  strange  tales  were 
circulated  by  credulous  chroniclers.  One  such  story  was  to 
this  effect:  Frederick  gave  two  men  a  hearty  dinner,  after 
which  one  of  them  was  made  to  take  a  nap  and  the  other  to 
go  hunting.  Both  were  then  put  to  death  and  their  insides 
examined  with  a  view  to  learning  whether  sleep  or  exercise 
immediately  after  a  meal  was  more  favorable  to  digestion. 
Frederick's  court  astrologer  was  Michael  Scot,  a  native  of 
the  British  Isles  who  did  much  to  promote  the  translation 
of  Aristotle  and  other  learned  writings  from  Arabic  into 
Latin,  and  who  sooner  or  later  won  a  popular  reputation  as 
a  magician.  Another  monarch  of  the  thirteenth  century 
famed  for  his  own  erudition  as  well  as  his  patronage  of 
learning  was  Alfonso  the  Wise  of  Castile  (1252-1284). 

In  both  Sicily  and  the  Spanish  peninsula  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  twelfth  and  the  early  years  of  the  thirteenth  century 
T,      ,  ,.        numerous  translators  were  engaged  in  turning 

Translations  «      ,  .        ,  r   /->        i 

from  the  into  Latm  from  Arabic  the  treasures  of  Greek 
^^^^^'^  science  and  philosophy  which  the  Arabs  had 

preserved  and  also  many  writings  of  the  Arabs  themselves. 
As  such  works  became  available  for  Latin  readers,  they 
greatly  increased  the  amount  of  facts  and  theories  current, 
broadened  the  outlook  of  the  learned  world,  and  stimulated 
further  that  intellectual  curiosity  and  that  fondness  for  dis- 
cussion and  disputation  which  were  already  very  much  in 


THE  MEDIEVAL  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING      385 

evidence.  Medical  students  now  had  the  voluminous  works 
of  the  Greek  Galen  and  the  Arab  Avicenna;  astronomers 
profited  by  the  ancient  writings  of  Ptolemy,  and  by  the 
more  recent  works  of  numerous  Arabs.  Men's  minds  were 
now  formed  by  the  ideas  of  the  Greeks  and  Arabs  instead 
of  merely  by  reading  the  church  fathers  and  Latin  litera- 
ture. They  now  had  a  new  mass  of  material,  to  which  they 
could  put  the  questions  that  were  troubling  them,  and  which 
suggested  new  questions  to  them.  It  may  seem  strange  that 
ancient  Greek  writers,  most  of  whom  were  pagans,  and  more 
recent  writers  in  Arabic,  many  of  whom  were  Mohamme- 
dans, should  have  been  so  readily  accepted  as  authorities 
by  the  Western  Christian  world.  But  intellectual  curiosity 
and  respect  for  learning  proved  stronger  than  religious  scru- 
ples. There  was,  it  is  true,  an  abiding  hostility  to  certain 
free-thinking  Arabs  like  Averroes,  but  this  was  because  he 
was  a  skeptic  and  not  even  a  good  Mohammedan. 

But  Aristotle,  whom  Averroes  and  the  Arabian  learned 
world  generally  had  fervently  admired  as  the  greatest  of  all 
philosophers,  was  equally  esteemed  by  the  Chris-  The  new 
tians  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In  Abelard's  ^"stotle 
time  only  his  logical  treatises  had  been  known  to  the  Latins, 
but  now  most  of  the  other  works  by  him  which  have  come 
down  to  us  were  translated.  Plato,  whose  philosophy  of 
nature  William  of  Conches  had  followed  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, was  now  rather  neglected  in  favor  of  Aristotle.  For  a 
while,  it  is  true,  Aristotle's  treatises  in  natural  science  were 
not  permitted  to  be  taught  at  Paris,  but  soon  they,  together 
with  his  other  works,  became  the  common  property  of  all 
Latin  scholars  thanks  to  the  labors  of  the  two  great  school- 
men, Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas.  The  former 
set  forth  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle  with  additions  of  his  own 
in  a  series  of  works  which  paralleled  in  titles  and  contents 
the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosopher.  Aquinas  issued  a 
revised  translation  of  Aristotle's  writings  with  an  accom- 
panying commentary  of  his  own.  Aristotle's  Metaphysics, 
a  work  dealing  as  its  title  suggests  with  things  beyond  the 
purely  physical,  was  of  great  interest  to  the  medieval  theo- 


386        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

logians  and  gave  a  further  impetus  to  their  science,  although, 
inasmuch  as  Aristotle  believed  neither  in  the  creation  of  the 
world  nor  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  they  experienced 
some  difficulty  in  reconciling  all  his  utterances  with  their 
Bibles.  But  most  of  such  difficulties  had  been  smoothed 
away  by  Albertus  and  Thomas.  Albertus  and  Aquinas  also 
wrote  many  theological  works,  and  the  latter  is  generally 
regarded  by  Roman  Catholics  as  their  greatest  medieval 
theologian.  Both  men  were  indefatigable  writers  and  the  col- 
lected works  of  either  to-day  fill  about  forty  portly  volumes. 
In  natural  science,  too,  further  progress  was  made  in  the 
thirteenth  century  with  the  translation  of  Aristotle's  books 
Natural  of  natural  philosophy  and  of  numerous  other 

science  in       Greek  and  Arabian  scientists.   In  some  branches 

the  thir-  r       •  i  i     l 

teenth  of  science,  moreover,  an  advance  was  made  be- 

century  yond  the  knowledge  of  previous  ages.   In  phys- 

ical science  this  was  true  in  optics  and  dynamics.  A  branch 
of  mathematics  with  an  Arabian  name,  algebra,  now  be- 
gan to  develop  in  addition  to  the  older  subjects  of  arith- 
metic and  geometry.  Early  in  the  century  Leonardo  of 
Pisa  introduced  into  western  Europe  the  so-called  Arabic 
numerals,  which  were  really  derived  from  the  Hindus  by 
the  Arabs.  As  we  have  said  before,  this  was  probably  the 
greatest  improvement  in  writing  made  since  the  invention  of 
the  phonetic  alphabet,  for  the  new  figures  could  be  written 
in  much  less  time  than  could  the  clumsy  Roman  numerals 
and  were  far  handier  in  written  reckoning  than  any  previous 
system.  In  astronomy  new  tables  of  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  were  drawn  up  under  the  direction  of 
Alfonso  the  Wise  of  Castile,  and  the  need  of  further  re- 
forming the  calendar  was  generally  recognized.  Many  new 
facts  were  collected  from  personal  experience  and  observa- 
tion concerning  animals,  plants,  and  countries  which  were 
either  unmentioned  at  all  or  incorrectly  described  in  those 
works  which  had  come  down  from  antiquity.  Such  inno- 
vations were  partly  the  work  of  the  Arabs  and  of  the  Ori- 
ental learning  from  which  they  drew,  but  were  also  in  part 
the  work  of  the  Latins  themselves. 


THE   MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING      387 

The  general  laws  of  nature  were  as  yet,  nevertheless,  by 
no  means  completely  and  satisfactorily  worked  out.  The 
facts  that  had  been  collected  had  not  been  prop-  Belief  in 
erly  systematized  and  much  misinformation  was  ^^ult 
mixed  in  with  them.  Magic,  of  which  we  saw  virtues 
traces  in  the  Roman  Empire  and  to  which  the  Arabs  were 
especially  prone,  still  cast  its  spell  over  learning.  Men  were 
very  credulous  concerning  reported  marvels.  A  few  indis- 
putable facts  for  which  they  could  not  account,  such  as  the 
magnet's  attraction  for  iron,  made  them  ready  to  believe 
in  a  host  of  wonders.  Marvelous  occult  virtues  were  attrib- 
uted to  herbs  and  even  to  parts  of  animals,  such  as  the 
blood  of  a  fox  or  the  liver  of  a  vulture.  Snakes,  mice,  and 
various  nasty  substances  were  highly  prized  for  their  sup- 
posed medicinal  properties.  Going  to  a  medieval  doctor  was 
far  worse  than  a  session  with  a  modern  dentist,  for  he  was 
likely  to  prescribe  that  the  patient  take  whole  in  a  little 
wine  or  water  "the  worms  with  many  feet  that  are  found 
between  the  trunk  and  bark  of  trees."  Gilbert  of  England 
prescribed  this  as  a  remedy  for  spots  in  the  eye,  but  added 
the  recommendation  that  the  dose  be  accompanied  by  repe- 
tition of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  As  for  toothache,  among  the 
treatments  for  it  listed  in  the  medical  work  of  a  scholar 
from  the  Spanish  peninsula  who  finally  became  pope,  we 
find  filling  the  cavity  with  the  brain  of  a  partridge  or  with 
the  pulverized  teeth  of  a  dog,  touching  it  with  a  dead  man's 
tooth  or  with  a  root  shaped  like  a  tooth,  as  well  as  the  more 
sensible  application  of  opium.  The  greatest  virtues  among 
terrestrial  objects  were  attributed  to  gems,  some  of  which, 
it  was  believed,  could  confer  wisdom  and  eloquence,  gra- 
ciousness  or  success  or  riches  upon  their  bearers,  or  even 
make  them  invisible. 

The  supreme  power  in  the  natural  universe  was  reserved 
to  the  stars.   By  the  movements  of  the  planets  all  changes  in 
the  world  of  physical  nature  and  many  in  the  ^gj-roiogv 
life  of  man  were  supposed  to  be  regulated.     It  and 
was  from  the  stars  that  gems  and  herbs  derived  ^  ^  ^"^^ 
their  occult  virtues.    Many  doctors  inspected  the  sky  with 


388        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

reference  to  the  diseases  and  treatment  of  their  patients, 
and  many  rulers  kept  astrologers  at  their  courts.  Even 
bishops  and  popes  were  at  times  known  to  consult  them. 
The  alchemists  tried  to  convert  other  metals  into  gold,  and 
often  proceeded  toward  this  goal  by  mystic  methods  with 
incantations  and  useless  ceremonial.  However,  the  alchem- 
ists of  the  thirteenth  century  were  more  sober  and  scientific 
and  less  superstitious  than  those  of  the  Greek-speaking  or 
Arabian  worlds.  They  were  already  on  the  road  to  modern 
chemistry,  and  there  is  to-day  a  tendency  to  return  to  their 
belief  that  one  primal  matter  lies  behind  the  chemical  ele- 
ments. Peter  of  Abano,  however,  who  was  probably  the 
most  learned  man  living  around  the  year  1300,  despaired  of 
any  such  discovery  as  that  of  atomic  weights,  declaring  it 
impossible  to  find  the  quantities  and  weights  of  the  con- 
stituent elements  in  any  object.  Such  uncertainty  concern- 
ing the  composition  of  bodies  was  one  reason  for  the  belief 
in  occult  virtues. 

Scientific  apparatus  was  still  in  a  primitive  state  and  the 
experimental  method  and  mathematical  accuracy  of  mod- 
^       .  ern  science  were  not  yet  in  existence.    But  raen 

Experiment  ,    ,  •  i  i  • 

and  like  the  alchemists  and  architects  experimented 

inventions  ^  good  deal  in  their  own  way  and  attained  to 
some  important  discoveries  as  a  result.  The  mariner's  com- 
pass with  its  magnetic  needle,  gunpowder,  and  magnifying 
lenses  for  eyeglasses  all  first  became  known  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries.  We  have  already  mentioned 
chimney  flues,  lead  plumbing,  and  glass  windows.  New  dyes 
and  industrial  processes  were  discovered,  and  mechanical 
clocks  were  a  medieval  invention.  Clocks  and  lenses  were 
later  to  prove  of  great  help  in  scientific  investigation,  since 
the  one  enables  time  to  be  measured  accurately,  while  the 
other,  when  developed  into  telescope  and  microscope,  en- 
ables one  to  study  much  that  is  invisible  to  the  naked  eye. 
Many  learned  men,  from  Adelard  of  Bath  in  the  early 
twelfth  to  Roger  Bacon  in  the  thirteenth  century,  ad- 
vocated experimentation  as  well  as  reading  authorities  as 
a  method  of  discovering  truth.    Roger  Bacon,  in  a  work 


THE  MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING      389 

written  about  1267  at  the  request  of  Pope  Clement  IV, 
argued  that  philosophy  and  science  could  be  of  great 
service  to  the  Church,  and  classed  "experimental  science" 
with  the  ancient  languages,  mathematics,  optics,  and  ethics 
as  the  five  subjects  of  most  importance  after  theology. 

All  this  teaching,  studying,  and  enthusiasm  for  learning 
resulted  in  the  organization  of  universities  in  those  places 
where  there  were  from  year  to  year  enough  Rise  of 
teachers  and  students  to  form  a  permanent  in-  universities 
stitution  of  higher  learning.  At  a  later  date  universities 
were  founded  by  princes,  such  as  that  established  at  Naples 
by  Frederick  II,  or  by  the  municipal  authorities  in  the  Ital- 
ian communes;  and  then  professors  were  called  from  other 
places  and  students  were  gradually  attracted.  But  the  old- 
est universities,  such  as  those  of  Paris,  Bologna,  and  Ox- 
ford, grew  up  spontaneously  and  almost  imperceptibly  out 
of  the  wanderings  of  students  and  the  instruction  given  by 
individual  teachers  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries. 
The  informal  character  of  this  early  teaching  was  slow  to 
disappear,  and  for  a  long  time  many  students  took  neither 
degrees  nor  examinations  and  attended  or  absented  them- 
selves from  classes  as  they  pleased.  It  was  even  longer 
before  the  universities  came  to  possess  costly  permanent 
buildings.  But  gradually  the  teachers  united  into  faculties, 
university  statutes  came  into  existence,  and  the  students 
organized  themselves  by  "nations"  or  in  other  unions.  At 
Paris  there  were  four  nations,  the  English,  Normans, 
Picards,  and  "French."  The  chief  faculties  were  those  of 
arts,  whose  instruction  led  to  the  degrees  of  Bachelor  of 
Arts  and  Master  of  Arts,  of  Medicine,  of  Civil  Law,  of 
Canon  Law,  and  of  Theology.  As  the  names  Bologna,  Paris, 
and  Oxford  suggest,  universities  first  developed  in  Italy, 
France,  and  England.  They  also  soon  were  flourishing  in 
Spain,  but  Germany,  whose  universities  have  been  so  num- 
erous and  celebrated  in  recent  times,  lagged  behind  in 
medieval  education.  The  first  university  in  the  part  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  lying  north  of  the  Alps  was  founded  in 
1348  at  Prague  in  Bohemia,  where  most  of  the  population 


390        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

were  Czechs.  Universities  in  German  cities  —  Vienna,  Hei- 
delberg, Cologne,  Erfurt  —  soon  followed,  however.  By  the 
close  of  the  Middle  Ages  there  were  some  eighty  univer- 
sities in  Europe. 

The  universities  were  as  cosmopolitan  in  character  as 
was  the  Church  itself.  We  find  Hungarians  at  Paris  and 
Place  of  the  Polish  scholars  in  Italy.  But  the  students  were 
universities  supposed  to  havc  learned  to  speak  and  to  under- 
histor '  of  stand  Latin  in  grammar  schools  before  they  came 
civilization  to  the  University,  where  both  lectures  and  dis- 
putations were  conducted  in  the  Latin  language.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  medieval  universities  "affected  the  prog- 
ress and  intellectual  development  of  Europe  more  power- 
fully, or  perhaps  rather  more  exclusively,  than  any  schools 
in  all  likelihood  will  ever  do  again."  On  the  other  hand, 
most  of  them  are  still  in  existence  to-day  as  modern  Euro- 
pean universities,  and  have  had  an  unbroken,  though  of 
course  changing,  intellectual  life  since  the  time  of  their 
foundation.  Moreover,  it  is  doubtful  if  we  can  apply  to  the 
Greek  schools  of  philosophy,  or  to  the  learned  world  of 
scholars  at  Alexandria,  or  to  the  Roman  law  schools,  the 
name  "universities"  in  the  sense  in  which  it  applies  to  the 
institutions  of  higher  learning  both  in  medieval  and  modem 
times.  We  therefore  owe  our  universities  to  the  Middle  Ages. 

Our  word  "university"  is  derived  from  the  Latin  univer- 
sitas,  which  in  the  Middle  Ages  at  first  meant  any  gild  or 
TT  •      V       corporation.    At  first  the  distinctive  term  for  an 

Universities  .... 

as  scholastic  educational  institution  was  stiidium,  or  studium 
^'   ^  generate,  if  there  were  several   faculties.    It  was 

natural  for  the  teachers  and  students  in  a  town,  especially 
if  they  were  unprotected  foreigners  far  from  home,  to  unite 
in  a  gild  of  scholars.  And  it  is  easy  to  see  the  resemblance 
between  the  masters  of  the  Parisian  faculties  and  the 
master- workmen  in  a  craft  gild,  and  between  their  students 
to  whom  they  granted  degrees  and  the  apprentices  whom 
the  master-workmen  admitted  to  their  gild  after  due  train- 
ing. At  Bologna  the  maturer  law  students  themselves  united 
into  universitates,  chose  a  rector  to  enforce  their  statutes. 


THE  MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING      391 

and  hired  their  teachers.  This  shows  us  that  there  was  con- 
siderable variety  in  the  method  of  organization  in  different 
universities,  which  were  often  as  complicated  in  their  admin- 
istration as  American  universities  are  to-day. 

Organization  was  useful  in  order  to  gain  freedom  from 
the  control  of  the  town  where  the  university  was  located 
and  to  secure  special  privileges  for  the  students  Academic 
and  the  institution.  Since  the  universities  had  P^'i'^i^eges 
grown  up  to  a  large  extent  out  of  church  schools  and  clerical 
education,  it  was  customary  for  them  to  claim  the  privileges 
of  the  clergy  for  their  members,  who  usually  received  the 
tonsure  and  could  not  be  tried  by  secular  courts.  This  last 
was  a  useful  exemption  when  the  students  got  into  brawls 
with  tavern-keepers  or  fights  with  the  local  police.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  universities  did  not  wish  to  remain  under 
the  control  of  the  local  bishop  or  other  clerical  authorities. 
They  therefore  sought  grants  of  special  privileges  and  inde- 
pendence from  the  pope  or  the  king.  Or  if  a  university  were 
not  satisfied  with  the  treatment  which  it  received  in  one 
place,  the  masters  and  students  might  migrate  in  a  body 
and  establish  themselves  in  some  other  city,  since  the 
university  seldom  owned  much  real  estate  and  had  neither 
large  libraries  nor  laboratories. 

Instruction  was  given  in  hired  halls  where  the  students 
sometimes  did  not  even  have  seats  or  benches,  but  squatted 
on  the  straw-strewn  floor  with  their  notebooks  classroom 
on  their  knees.  As  printing  had  not  yet  been  instruction 
invented  and  books  were  expensive,  instruction  was  largely 
oral,  consisting  of  lectures  and  disputations.  However, 
there  were  textbooks  on  which  the  lectures  were  based,  the 
teacher  reading  a  passage  out  of  the  book  and  then  explain- 
ing its  meaning  and  making  comments  upon  it.  The  stu- 
dents could  thus  make  their  own  copies  of  the  textbook  as 
they  went  along.  Consequently  lectures  were  generally  two 
hours  long  and  the  faithful  student  attended  about  three  a 
day.  Classes  began  at  six  o'clock,  at  ten  there  was  an  inter- 
mission for  lunch,  at  noon  or  soon  after  instruction  was 
resumed,  at  five  came  the  dinner  hour.    The  ideal  student 


392        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

was  apparently  supposed  never  to  have  any  fun :  there  were 
no  authorized  amusements  and  even  chess  was  frowned  on. 
But  in  actual  practice  the  students  had  their  evenings  free 
and  were  liable  to  indulge  in  a  deal  of  drinking,  dicing,  and 
nocturnal  escapades.  There  were  no  classes  on  Sundays,  and 
on  the  numerous  saints'  days  the  program  was  lighter  than 
usual. 

Although  boys  entered  the  universities  at  a  younger  age 
than  to-day,  and,  if  they  came  from  a  distance,  were  quite 
cut  off  from  home  influences  by  the  lack  of  rail- 
roads and  post-oflices,  they  were  placed  under 
little  effective  restraint  or  discipline.  Gradually,  however, 
"colleges"  were  founded, especially  within  the  English  uni- 
versities, at  first  for  the  benefit  of  poor  students.  These 
were  houses  where  the  student  boarded  and  roomed  and 
where  he  could  also  be  made  to  get  his  lessons  and  keep 
good  hours.  No  physical  training  was  required  of  the  stu- 
dents and  intercollegiate  athletics  were  unknown.  But  some 
of  the  "college  customs"  of  to-day  date  back  to  the  Middle 
Ages.  In  the  initiation  of  the  Bejaunus,  we  see  the  same 
thing  as  the  "hazing"  of  Freshmen,  and  modern  academic 
caps  and  gowns  are  a  relic  of  medieval  costume.  The  college 
boy  of  all  ages  has  been  proverbially  "broke,"  and  we  hear 
much  of  the  poor  students  and  their  hardships  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  Instead  of  "canvassing"  during  the  summer  vaca- 
tion, they  often  went  about  begging  and  offering  to  "sing 
for  the  souls  of  such  as  assist  me." 

Some  of  the  Latin  poems  written  by  students  or  by  wan- 
dering clergy  in  the  twelfth  century  were  far,  however,  from 
Medieval  being  directed  toward  the  salvation  of  souls. 
Latin  poetry  'pj^g  Carmina  Burana,  a  collection  of  Latin  verse 
found  in  a  Bavarian  monastery,  are  in  large  part  satires 
upon  the  clergy,  or  drinking-  and  love-songs  written  in  a 
most  frivolous  and  rollicking  tone  with  invocations  of  Bac- 
chus and  other  pagan  deities.  On  the  other  hand,  we  should 
not  forget  the  great  medieval  Latin  hymns  such  as  the  Dies 
IrcB  and  Stabat  Mater  and  those  ascribed  to  St.  Bernard. 

The  amount  of  learning  had  so  increased  since  the  twelfth 


THE   MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING      393 

century  that  men  had  all  that  they  could  do  to  absorb  the 
contents  of  the  new  books  and  no  longer  gave  Scholastic 
much  attention  to  literary  style  either  in  what  ^^*'" 
they  read  or  what  they  wrote.  Logic  drove  out  rhetoric, 
and  the  literary  study  of  the  Latin  classics  begun  at  Chartres 
in  the  previous  century  came  to  an  end,  displaced  by  the 
enthusiasm  for  Roman  law,  medicine,  Greek  philosophy, 
and  Arabian  science.  But  although  scholastic  commentaries 
and  other  works  are  dry  reading  and  needlessly  long,  their 
thought  is  often  acute  and  their  contents  better  arranged 
than  in  the  case  of  many  ancient  books.  If  their  style  is  not 
attractive,  these  scholars  were  nevertheless  able  to  express 
themselves  accurately,  inventing  many  new  technical  words 
to  supply  the  scientific,  philosophical,  and  theological  de- 
fects of  the  ancient  Latin  language. 

After  Edrisi  geographical  knowledge  continued  to  make 
great  strides  during  the  remaining  Middle  Ages.  The  rise 
in  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century  of  a  Penetration 
great  Mongol  empire  stretching  from  China  to  °^  ^^^^ 
Russia  made  it  possible  for  Western  ambassadors  and  mis- 
sionaries, travelers  and  traders,  'to  penetrate  in  person  to 
the  Far  East  and  to  learn  of  regions  of  which  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  have  left  no  accounts.  From  the  thirteenth  century 
we  have  interesting  narratives,  by  the  friars  John  de  Piano 
Carpini  and  William  of  Rubruk,  envoys  of  the  pope  and  of 
the  King  of  France  respectively,  of  their  journeys  into  the 
heart  of  Asia  to  the  court  of  the  Great  Khan  at  Karakorum, 
and  the  fuller  and  even  more  fascinating  book  of  the  Vene- 
tian merchant,  Marco  Polo,  who  spent  the  better  part  of 
his  life  in  China  and  other  Asiatic  lands.  There  he  traveled 
widely  in  the  service  of  the  Khan,  who  had  by  that  time 
moved  his  capital  from  Mongolia  to  Peking  and  had  adopted 
much  of  Chinese  civilization.  Marco  was  the  first  writer 
to  reveal  that  civilization  to  the  Western  world,  and  to  tell 
of  many  other  regions  such  as  Madagascar,  Abyssinia, 
Tibet,  Burma,  Siam,  Cochin-China,  Ceylon,  Java,  Sumatra, 
and  other  islands  of  the  East  Indian  archipelago.  Some 
regions  that  he  traversed  were  not  visited  again  by  Euro- 


394        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

peans  until  the  nineteenth  century.  He  left  Venice  with  his 
father  and  uncle  in  127 1  and  did  not  return  until  1295. 
Three  years  later  he  was  captured  by  the  Genoese  in  a  sea 
fight  and  while  in  prison  dictated  the  story  of  his  travels. 
In  1 29 1  John  of  Monte  Corvino  went  as  a  missionary  to 
India,  whence  he  sent  back  a  description  of  the  Deccan,  or 
southern  part  of  the  peninsula,  and  its  people.  He  then 
proceeded  to  China  of  which  the  pope  made  him  archbishop 
and  sent  others  out  to  serve  under  him.  He  died  in  1328, 
"not  only  the  first  but  also  seemingly  the  last  effective 
European  bishop  in  the  Peking  of  the  Middle  Ages."  Other 
envoys,  missionaries,  and  traders  penetrated  yet  other  parts 
of  Asia  and  have  left  records  of  their  travels. 

Besides  this  overland  penetration  of  the  vast  continent 
of  Asia,  there  were  westward  voyages  of  discovery  to  the 
Westward  Canary,  Madeira,  and  Azores  Islands,  and  other 
Ho!  voyages   along   the  west   coast  of  Africa   in  an 

effort  to  circumnavigate  that  continent  and  so  reach  the 
Indies.  Deep-sea  sailing  had  been  assisted  by  the  invention 
of  the  mariner's  compass.  We  are  apt  to  associate  such  enter- 
prises with  the  later  period  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator 
and  of  Columbus,  but  the  age  of  discovery  had  really  begun 
by  the  late  thirteenth  and  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  Indeed,  Edrisi  tells  us  of  eight  explorers  who  sailed 
west  from  Lisbon  in  the  early  twelfth  century  in  a  vain 
effort  to  find  the  limits  of  the  western  ocean.  About  1270 
Lancelot  Malocello  went  with  Genoese  vessels  to  the  Cana- 
ries, and  in  1291  two  Genoese  galleys  tried  to  establish  a 
direct  sea  trade  with  India  by  circumnavigating  Africa,  but 
never  returned.  In  1341  a  Portuguese  fleet  explored  the 
Canaries  and  found  only  natives  there.  But  a  Spanish 
geography  written  at  about  the  same  time  lists  the  Madeiras, 
nine  of  the  Canaries,  and  eight  of  the  Azores,  while  a  map 
of  1 35 1  indicates  accurately,  the  location  and  contours  of 
the  three  groups.  Apparently  they  had  been  known  for 
some  time.  Yet  the  Azores  are  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  the  nearest  point  on  the  Portuguese  coast,  and  one 
third  of  the  way  from  Gibraltar  to  New  York  on  a  modem 


THE   MEDIEVAL   REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING      395 

steamer.  Therefore  long  before  Columbus  there  were  deep- 
sea  sailors  who  were  not  afraid  to  venture  far  out  of  sight 
of  land,  farther  even  than  the  Northmen  who  had  ventured 
still  earlier  from  Norway  to  the  Orkneys  and  Shetlands, 
from  these  to  the  Faroe  Islands,  and  thence  to  Iceland,  to 
Greenland,  and  to  Vinland. 

The  map  of  1351  to  which  we  just  referred  is  known  as 
the  Laurentian  Portolano.  It  also,  possibly  by  a  lucky  guess, 
represents  the  shape  of  the  continent  of  Africa  Th&porto- 
more  nearly  correctly  than  does  any  other  map  ^^"* 
before  the  rounding  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  at  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  word  portolano  means  a 
"handy-plan,"  and  is  applied  to  the  charts  of  the  coast-line 
of  which  our  earliest  examples  date  about  1300.  But  these 
first  extant  portolani  are  so  elaborate  and  accurate  that 
there  must  have  been  a  preceding  period  of  preparation 
before  such  detailed  and  correct  charts  could  be  produced. 
They  are  evidently  the  result  of  close  observation  by  prac- 
tical men  and  were  made  by  sailors  for  sailors.  They  are 
the  first  true  maps  in  the  modem  sense  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  represent  an  immense  and  sudden  advance  in 
cartography.  They  give  a  large  number  of  place  names  and 
indicate  headlands,  bays,  and  even  shoals.  Those  which  we 
possess  are  chiefly  the  work  of  Italians  and  are  especially 
accurate  for  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  but  often  display  other 
coasts  of  Europe  with  fidelity,  and  sometimes  expand  into 
world-maps  like  the  Laurentian  Portolano  already  men- 
tioned. 


396        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS     ' 

Life  of  Gerbert. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  376-405. 

Life  of  Abelard. 
Any  one  of  the  first  five  chapters  in  Joseph  McCabe,  Abelard  (London, 
1901). 

miscell.4neous    source    selections    illustrative    of     medieval 
Learning. 
Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  438-61. 

The  Intellectual  Movement  of  the  Thirteenth  Century. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  458-73. 

Student  Life. 

Rashdall,  History  of  the  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  vol.  ll, 
chap.  XIV  (pp.  593-712). 

Carmina  Burana. 
Well  translated  by  J.  A.  Symonds,  in  Wine,  Women,  and  Song. 

Natural  Science  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Thorndike,  Popular  Science  Monthly  (now  called  The  Scientific  Monthly), 
September,  191 5,  pp.  271-91. 

Discovery  of  the  Compass  and  the  First  True  Maps  (with  illus- 
trations). 
Beazley,  Dawn  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  iii,  pp.  508-19. 

Later  Medieval  Exploration. 

Ibid.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  1-8. 

The  Book  of  Ser  Marco  Polo. 

Translated  with  full  apparatus  and  notes  by  Yule  in  two  volumes. 
A  handier  translation  is  that  in  Everyman's  Library. 

For  the  narratives  of  Carpini  and  Rubruk  see  the  readings  at  the  end 
of  chapter  xxix. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

MEDIEVAL   LITERATURE 

While  Latin  scholars,  despite  their  occasional  experi- 
ments and  original  ideas,  were  devoting  most  of  their  time 
to  rehashing  the  opinions  of  past  Christian  Anew 
authors  and  to  absorbing  the  recently  acquired  fort?!  new 
science  of  the  Greeks  and  Arabs,  popular  writers  literature 
in  the  new  languages  of  western  Europe  and  the  artists  in 
the  service  of  the  Church  were  engaged  primarily  in  new 
creations.  The  new  society  which  had  developed  as  an 
outcome  of  the  fusion  of  Teutons  and  Romans  was  now 
ready  to  express  itself.  There  were  also  the  Celts  whose 
folklore  and  imagination  do  not  seem  to  have  come  to  the 
surface  in  Latin  literature  when  they  were  provincials  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  There  were  the  Germanic  and  Norse  in- 
vaders with  their  new  myths  and  legends.  There  was  the 
feudal  aristocracy  of  innumerable  knights,  always  fighting, 
jousting,  and  crusading,  until  at  last  it  wore  itself  out  under 
the  spurring  of  its  own  superabundant  vitality. 

"For  the  sword  outwears  its  sheath 
And  the  soul  wears  out  the  breast." 

There  were  the  men  of  the  rising  communes,  crude  as  yet  in 
manners  and  not  overrefined  in  sentiment,  but  ambitious 
and  industrious,  and  some  of  them  artists  and  inventors. 
Now,  the  vast  majority  of  the  Celtic  and  Germanic  and 
Norse  population  of  Europe  neither  spoke  nor  understood 
Latin,  and  the  same  was  true  of  the  feudal  aristocracy  and 
the  townsmen.  Literature  intended  for  them  must  be 
written  in  the  vernacular  speech  of  their  daily  life.  With  a 
few  exceptions,  we  first  find  it  so  written  in  the  eleventh, 
twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries.  Let  us  first  see  what  the 
languages  were  in  which  this  literature  was  written;  then 
we  will  return  to  the  literature  itself. 

The  Celtic  languages  survived  to  some  extent  into  the 


398        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Middle  Ages  and  a  considerable  literature  was  produced  in 
Celtic  medieval  Ireland.     But  it  remained  apart  from 

languages  ^j^g  main  currents  of  European  literature  and 
was  not  followed  by  any  great  modern  literature.  The 
Gallic  variety  of  Celtic  had  disappeared  in  Gaul  by  the 
fourth  century.  But  the  Brythonic  (British)  dialects  still 
existed  in  England  at  the  time  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest 
and,  although  they  were  obliterated  there  by  the  Germani«. 
invaders,  they  found  a  refuge  in  Wales,  Cornwall,  and 
Brittany,  where  Welsh,  Cornish,  and  Breton  dialects  are 
still  spoken  to  some  extent  to-day.  Gaelic,  the  speech  of  the 
Goidels  or  third  branch  of  Celts,  was  the  language  of  Ire- 
land, where  many  still  speak  it.  It  also  prevailed  for  a  long 
time  in  the  Scotch  Highlands,  but  is  now  almost  extinct 
there. 

The  various  Teutonic  tongues  may  be  classified  in  three 
groups:  first,  the  eastern,  or  Gothic,  which  included  the  Ian- 
Teutonic  guages  of  the  Vandals  and  other  German  tribes 
languages  .^j^q  were  located  in  the  east  of  Europe  before 
they  invaded  the  Roman  Empire;  second,  the  northern  or 
Scandinavian  group,  which  was  cut  ofT  from  the  others  by 
Sla\'ic  inroads  south  of  Denmark  from  the  sixth  to  the  ninth 
century;  third,  the  western  group,  including  High  and  Low 
German,  Anglo-Saxon,  Frisian,  Dutch,  and  Flemish.  Of  the 
Teutonic  languages  during  the  early  Middle  Ages  we  know 
very  little  with  the  exception  of  the  Gothic,  of  which  a 
specimen  is  preserved  in  the  Bible  of  Ulfilas.  The  next 
Germanic  language  of  which  we  have  considerable  remains 
is  the  Anglo-Saxon  spoken  in  England  before  the  Norman 
Conquest. 

In  Germany  itself,  using  that  name  in  a  broad  geograph- 
ical sense,  the  language  divided  into  High  and  Low  German. 
High  and  As  the  country  consists  of  a  lofty  plateau 
Low  German  stretching  north  from  the  Alps  and  a  lower 
coastal  plain  including  the  mouths  of  the  rivers  Rhine,  Elbe, 
and  Oder,  so  the  linguistic  line  of  demarcation  may  be 
drawn  approximately  from  Aachen  and  Cologne  to  the 
confluence  of  the  Elbe  and  the  Saale.     High  German  was 


MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  399 

destined  to  become  the  national  speech;  Low  German  was 
more  closely  related  to  the  Dutch  and  the  English  languages. 
The  medieval  literature  in  Germany  of  which  we  shall  speak 
was  composed  in  Middle  High  German,  the  period  of  Old 
High  German  having  ended  about  iioo. 

The  modem  Romance  languages,  French,  Spanish,  Portu- 
guese, and  Italian,  have  developed  from  the  colloquial  Latin 
spoken  in  the  late  Roman  Empire  and  the  early  Romance 
Middle  Ages.  This  change  may  be  traced  in  the  languages 
oaths  taken  by  the  kings  of  the  West  Franks  and  of  the 
East  Franks  at  Strassburg  in  842,  a  document  which  also 
gives  us  an  early  specimen  of  German.  From  the  eleventh 
century  on  we  find  many  different  dialects  in  what  is  now 
France,  but  on  the  whole  here  as  in  Germany  a  dividing 
line  may  be  drawn  marking  off  the  two  tongues  of  north 
and  south.  From  the  northern  dialects  modem  French  has 
grown;  the  southern  tongue,  usually  called  Provencal,  was 
to  disappear  as  a  written  language,  but  is  still  spoken  by 
peasants  in  parts  of  southern  France.  These  two  groups 
of  dialects  in  France  are  also  often  called  respectively  the 
langiie  d'o'il  and  the  langue  d'oc  from  the  medieval  pronunci- 
ation of  the  word  for  "Yes"  in  the  two  sections.  Proven  gal 
was  more  closely  related  to  the  speech  of  northern  Italy  and 
northern  Spain  than  to  that  of  northern  France,  and  Cata- 
lan, the  language  of  the  northeastern  comer  of  the  Spanish 
peninsula,  was  really  a  branch  of  Provencal. 

By  virtue  of  a  written  literature  in  the  vernacular  during 
the  Anglo-Saxon  period,  England  can  boast  the  oldest  and 
longest  continuous  literary  history  of  any  coun-  Anglo-Saxon 
try  of  modern  Europe.  Bede,  though  himself  literature 
writing  in  Latin,  tells  us  of  earlier  Anglo-Saxon  poets. 
Beowulf,  the  leading  piece  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  is  extant 
only  in  a  manuscript  of  about  the  year  1000,  but  is  believed 
to  have  existed  in  its  present  form  as  early  as  the  century 
before  Charlemagne.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  begun  in 
Alfred's  time  if  not  earlier,  is  not  only  the  chief  work  in 
Anglo-Saxon  prose,  but  the  earliest  piece  of  original  com- 
position in  prose  in  any  medieval  popular  tongue.    Anglo- 


400      THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Saxon,  however,  although  It  is  often  spoken  of  as  Old  Eng- 
lish, is  very  different  from  the  English  language  of  later 
times.  It  is  much  easier  for  a  Frenchman  to  understand  a 
French  poem  of  the  twelfth  century  than  for  an  English- 
man to  attempt  to  read  Anglo-Saxon,  in  which  many  words 
and  expressions  are  still  a  puzzle  even  to  scholars. 

After  the  Norman  conquest  in  the  eleventh  century 
learned  men  and  the  court  and  nobility  all  spoke  and  wrote 
,^  J.     ,        for  some   time   either  in    Latin   or  in   Norman 

Medieval  ^  ,  ,     »       i     r-  r 

English  French,  and  Anglo-Saxon  went  out  oi  use  as  a 

literature  literary  language  except  for  the  continuation  of 
the  Chronicle  to  1154.  Indeed,  even  before  the  Norman 
conquest  Anglo-Saxon  literature,  like  the  Anglo-Saxon  mon- 
archy, had  already  shown  signs  of  decline.  Anglo-Saxon 
now  became  simply  the  spoken  tongue  of  the  uneducated 
classes  and  the  common  people,  and  it  was  only  after  a  long 
period  of  transformation  of  sounds,  endings,  and  inflections, 
and  of  great  alteration  and  enrichment  of  the  vocabulary 
by  words  adopted  from  the  French  or  Latin,  that  the  lan- 
guage of  the  people  again  came  to  serve  as  a  literary  medium. 
Hence  the  first  works  of  any  importance  in  Middle  English 
were  not  written  until  the  thirteenth  century,  and  not  until 
the  second  half  of  the  fourteenth  do  we  reach,  in  Langland 
and  Chaucer,  the  great  period  of  English  medieval  literature. 
The  epic  Beowulf  is  thought  to  have  existed  in  oral  reci- 
tative form  for  some  time  before  it  was  set  down  in  writing. 
Medieval  It  is  a  tale  of  fighting  and  seafaring,  of  heroic 
survivals  of     conflict  with  wcird  forces  of  nature,  of  slaying 

the  primi-  ,  .        ,     .  ,  i      r    i      •    • 

tive  Teutonic  dragons  m  their  watery  caverns,  and  01  drammg 
folk  epic  flagons  of  ale  in  the  halls  of  thegns.  It  is  written 
in  the  alliterative  verse  usual  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  where 
the  important  and  accented  words  in  a  line  begin  with  the 
same  sound.  The  Eddas  of  Iceland,  too,  written  in  the  most 
primitive  style  of  Icelandic  verse,  with  stories  of  the  gods 
Woden  and  Thor,  of  prophetesses  and  magic,  of  thralls  and 
giants,  seem  to  be  a  collection  made  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury from  the  mass  of  myth  and  legend  handed  down  from 
earlier   heathen    times.    The   German  Nibelungenlied  also, 


MEDIEVAL   LITERATURE  405 

were  literary  artists;  they  also  were  clever  if  narrow  think- 
ers, and  they  possessed  no  slight  power  of  psychological 
analysis  of  character  and  motive.  We  find  in  them  further 
a  feeling  for  the  beauty  in  nature. 

The  poetry  of  the  troubadours  developed  early  and  ma- 
tured rapidly.  Guilhem  or  William  IX,  Duke  of  Aquitaine 
(1086-1127),  was  the  first  known  troubadour.  Date  and 
He  sang  of  love,  war,  and  many  other  topics  in  a  Proten^af^ 
manner  gay  and  light-hearted,  humorous  and  literature 
sarcastic,  sensual  and  licentious.  "He  knew  well  how  to  sing 
and  make  verses,  and  for  a  long  time  he  roamed  all  through 
the  land  to  deceive  ladies,"  says  the  Provencal  biography  of 
him.  He  went  on  the  crusade,  but  when  he  returned  from 
Palestine,  after  having  his  army  destroyed  by  the  Turks  in 
Asia  Minor,  he  recounted  his  varied  adventures  in  bur- 
lesque verse.  The  twelfth  century  was  the  flowering  time  of 
Provencal  poetry :  the  bitter  struggle  against  heresy  and  the 
cruel  Albigensian  Crusade  were  disastrous  to  the  southern 
feudal  courts  and  to  the  troubadours,  and  the  history  of 
Provencal  literature  ends  with  the  thirteenth  century. 

But  the  troubadours  themselves  and  their  verse,  methods, 
and  ideals  spread  to  other  lands,  and  almost  every  litera- 
ture in  a  modern  European  language  has  been  p^^^  ^  , 
affected  by  them.  The  poets  of  other  countries  influence  on 
learned  from  the  troubadours  many  lessons  in 
literary  form;  their  refining  influence  upon  manners  was 
also  widely  felt  and  their  attitude  toward  woman  was  gen- 
erally adopted.  Provencal  literature  continued  in  Catalonia, 
Navarre,  Aragon,  and  Valencia  after  it  had  disappeared  in 
southern  France.  Through  the  thirteenth  century  Italian 
poetry  was  being  shaped  under  the  influence  of  the  trouba- 
dours; they  were  paralleled  in  northern  France  by  the 
trouveres,  who  were  already  in  existence  by  the  twelfth 
century,  and  in  Germany  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  the 
minnesingers  or  "love-poets."  The  trouveres  set  up  love- 
courts  with  most  elaborate  and  artificial  codes  of  gallantry 
and  sentiment,  but  seem  inferior  to  the  southern  trouba- 
dours in  grace  and  naturalness.  Among  the  German  minne- 


4o6        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

singers,  however,  was  found  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all 
medieval  lyric  poets,  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  (Walter 
of  Bird-Meadow). 

From  the  south  we  turn  back  again  to  the  north  of  France 
to  consider  other  varieties  of  literature  which  developed 
The  courtly  there  a  little  later  than  the  chansons  de  geste.  By 
epic  |-jjg  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century  the  south- 

ern court  life  and  higher  regard  for  woman  began  to  affect 
the  northern  epics,  especially  since  actual  social  conditions 
in  the  north  also  were  growing  more  settled  and  refined. 
Consequently  the  courtly  epic  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
with  its  glorification  of  love  and  ladies,  became  quite  dif- 
ferent from  the  twelfth-century  chansons  de  geste. 

The  poets  also  began  to  seek  new  themes  for  their  lays. 
Arthurian  A  French  trouvere  of  the  thirteenth  century  wrote 
romances        ^f  |-|^g  epics  of  his  time:  — 

"  Ne  sont  que  trois  matieres  h.  nul  homme  entendant, 
De  France,  de  Bretaigne  et  de  Rome  la  grant." 

This  division  of  the  medieval  romantic  epic  into  three  great 
cycles  has  been  generally  accepted  by  modern  historians  of 
literature.  The  chansons  de  geste  dealt  with  "the  matter  of 
France."  By  the  thirteenth  century,  if  not  before,  poets 
were  also  telling  stories  of  King  Arthur  and  the  knights  of 
his  Round  Table,  of  the  wizard  Merlin  and  a  world  of  fairies 
and  enchantment,  and  of  the  search  for  the  Holy  Grail. 
This  was  the  cycle  "de  Bretaigne,"  a  word  meaning  either 
Britain  or  Brittany.  Arthur  seems  to  have  been  a  king  of 
Britain  who  struggled  against  the  Anglo-Saxon  invaders  and 
whose  memory  was  cherished  and  made  the  basis  of  legends 
by  the  fugitive  Celts  either  in  Brittany  or  Wales  or  both. 
The  French  writers  then  took  over  the  theme  either  by 
direct  contact  with  Bretons  on  the  Continent  or  through 
the  medium  of  the  French-speaking  Normans  in  England 
and  Normandy.  The  French  poets  doubtless  embellished 
the  legends  with  additions  of  their  own  and  from  other 
sources,  but  we  may  nevertheless  see  in  the  Arthurian 
romances  a  considerable  Celtic  contribution  to  the  main 


MEDIEVAL   LITERATURE  407 

current  of  European  literature.  The  stories  of  King  Arthur, 
like  other  French  romances,  spread  to  Germany  and  there 
gave  rise  to  the  two  great  epics,  Tristan  and  Parsifal. 

Under  "the  matter  of  Rome"  we  shall  have  to  include  not 
only  the  story  of  yEneas  and  the  siege  of  Troy,  but  many 
other  Greek  legends  such  as  the  stories  of  Thebes  Romances  of 
and  of  the  Argonautic  expedition.  Many  changes  antiquity 
were  made  in  these  tales  from  their  original  classical  ver- 
sions, and  the  heroes  and  their  environment  were  repre- 
sented as  knights  of  feudal  times.  An  especial  favorite  was 
the  romance  of  Alexander  who  became  almost  as  celebrated 
in  medieval  vernacular  literature  as  his  tutor  Aristotle  was 
esteemed  in  medieval  Latin  learning.  And  as  Aristotle  had 
been  admired  and  commented  upon  by  the  Arabs  before 
most  of  his  works  were  known  to  the  Christian  West,  so 
the  story  of  Alexander  exists  in  Persian,  Syriac,  Coptic, 
^thiopic,  Hebrew,  and  Armenian  as  well  as  in  Greek,  Latin, 
and  Romance  versions.  The  story  of  his  early  career  in 
Macedon,  his  victories  over  the  Persian  Empire,  and  his 
campaigns  to  the  frontiers  of  India  and  Tibet  had  grown 
under  the  workings  of  Oriental  and  medieval  imagination 
into  a  series  of  marvelous  adventures  in  the  Far  East  and 
of  feudal  mUees  after  the  style  of  the  chansons  de  geste. 
From  the  twelve-syllable  lines  employed  in  these  romances 
concerning  Alexander  comes  the  term  "Alexandrines." 

Two  of  the  most  interesting  and  important  of  the  medie- 
val French  romances  do  not  belong  to  any  of  the  above 
cycles,  but  stand  each  by  itself,  namely,  the  Reynard 
Romance  of  Reynard  the  Fox  and  the  Romance  ^^^  ^°^ 
of  the  Rose.  The  former  is  really  a  collection  of  narratives 
by  divers  authors  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries. 
In  part,  at  least,  it  is  of  Flemish  origin.  It  draws  its 
characters  from  the  animal  world,  but  often  attributes  hu- 
man traits  to  them,  just  as  the  books  of  science  in  Latin 
often  did  in  listing  the  qualities  and  properties  of  the  lion 
and  other  beasts.  Reynard  is  a  clever  rascal,  full  of  tricks 
and  plausible  talk,  gay  and  well-pleased  with  himself,  but 
sharp  and  malicious,  and  without  any  moral  scruples  what- 


4o8        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ever.  Some  have  thought  him  a  satire  upon  the  robber 
knight  of  the  period.  Indeed,  this  beast  epic  is  throughout 
a  keen  satire  not  only  upon  medieval  society,  but  upon 
human  nature  in  all  ages.  The  poem  also  illustrates  the 
medieval  fondness  for  animals  and  sympathy  with  them 
which  we  shall  meet  again  in  the  carvings  on  the  cathedrals. 
The  Romance  of  the  Rose  is  an  allegorical  story.  The 
author  is  represented  as  dreaming  and  seeing  various  virtues 
The  Romance  and  vices  personified.  In  other  words,  abstrac- 
of  the  Rose  tions,  such  as  False-Seeming,  Largess,  Courtesy, 
and  Reason,  are  the  characters  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose, 
instead  of  beasts,  such  as  Bernard  the  ass,  Dame  Fiere  the 
lioness,  Isengrim  the  wolf,  and  Chantecleer  the  cock,  in 
Reynard  the  Fox.  The  Rose  represents  the  loved  one  whom 
the  lover  seeks  to  win  throughout  the  poem.  This  romance 
was  begun  by  William  of  Lorris  in  the  first  half  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  perhaps  about  1235,  and  was  completed 
some  forty  years  later  by  Jean  de  Meun,  a  place  on  the 
Loire  River.  William's  briefer  part  of  the  poem  is  an  alle- 
gorical love  story  with  descriptions  of  a  beautiful  garden 
and  the  wonderful  singing  of  the  birds  therein.  John  con- 
tinues the  story,  but  digresses  or  has  his  characters  digress 
to  discuss  all  sorts  of  subjects,  scientific,  historical,  and 
social,  showing  us  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  people 
who  could  neither  speak  nor  read  Latin  might  nevertheless 
learn  not  a  little  both  of  nature  and  the  human  past  as  well 
as  of  present  political  and  social  problems.  The  lover's 
quest  at  last  is  brought  to  a  successful  termination  and  the 
poem  closes  with  the  couplets :  — 

"Here  ends  the  romance  called  'The  Rose,' 
Where  all  the  art  of  love's  enclosed: 
And  Nature  laughs,  it  seems  to  me. 
When  joined  at  last  are  He  and  She." 

If  the  chansons  de  geste  and  many  other  romances  were 
written  largely  for  the  feudal  nobles  and  their  ladies,  in 
^  , , .  the  fabliaux,  which  may  be  called  short  stories 

Fabhaux  .        -^  '  .  ... 

m  verse,  we  have   a   vanety  of  literature  more 
adapted  to  the  bourgeois  society  of  the  towns,  whose  ordi- 


MEDIEVAL   LITERATURE  409 

nary  daily  life  the  fabliaux  often  depict,  although  some  of 
them  are  stock  stories  of  all  times.  As  might  be  expected, 
the  fabliaux  are  liable  to  be  coarse;  they  are  full  of  satire, 
especially  at  the  expense  of  women  and  priests;  and  they 
picture  the  life  of  the  people  vividly  and  humorously.  Of 
those  extant  the  oldest  was  written  in  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century,  while  the  latest,  like  the  last  true  chansons 
de  geste,  were  produced  in  the  early  fourteenth  century. 

In  the  mysteries  and  miracle  plays,  which  represented 
Bible  stories  and  the  lives  of  saints  and  which  were  at  first 
presented  by  the  clergy  in  Latin,  there  came  to  Mygtgries 
be  the  same  popular  element  that  we  have  seen  and  miracle 
in  the  fabliaux.  Laymen,  especially  of  the  gilds,  ^  ^^^ 
were  by  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth    centuries  giving  such 
plays  in  the  vernaculars  of  France,  Germany,  and  England. 
The  medieval  audience  enjoyed  the  introduction  of  scenes 
from  daily  life,  as  when  the  three  Maries  stop  on  their  way 
to  the  sepulcher  to  purchase  the  spices  of  a  merchant,  or 
of  comic  relief  and  horse-play,  as  when  Noah  is  knocked 
down  by  his  angry  wife.    Even  less  literary  in  character  than 
the  mystery  and  miracle  plays  were  the  mummeries  and 
other  folk-festivals  of  a  dramatic  character. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  there  began  to  be  French  prose 
literature,  especially  historical  writing.    The  first  important 
work  was  a  contemporary  account  of  the  Fourth   Medieval 
Crusade  by  Villehardouin.    Some  of  the  Arthur-  French 
ian  romances  were  written  in  prose,  and  Aucassin  ^^^^^ 
et  Nicolette,  one  of  the  most  charming  of  all  love-stories,  is 
part  prose  and  part  verse.     Such  were  some  of  the  chief 
varieties  and  masterpieces  of  that  literature,  great  both  in 
quantity  and  quality,  produced  from  the  eleventh  to  the 
early    fourteenth    century    within    the    limits    of    modern 
France  and  in  Romance  languages,   "exhibiting  finish  of 
structure  when  all  the  rest  were  merely  barbarian  novices, 
exploring  every  literary  form  from  history  to  drama,  and 
epic  to  song,  while  others  were  stammering  their  exercises, 
mostly  learnt  from  her." 

There  were  three  groups  of  Romance  tongues  in  medieval 


4IO        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Spain.  In  the  western  group  of  Galicia  and  Portugal,  no 
Spain:  literature  of  importance   had  yet  appeared.    In 

The  Cid  Catalonia,  Aragon,   Navarre,   and  Valencia,  as 

we  have  already  seen,  the  troubadours  from  southern 
France  held  the  field.  But  in  Castile,  whose  tongue  was  to 
become  the  national  speech  of  Spain,  there  had  already 
been  written,  sometime  between  1150  and  1250,  the  Poema 
del  Cid,  an  epic  with  a  Spanish  hero.  Alfonso  the  Wise  of 
Castile  ( 1 252-1 284),  already  mentioned  as  a  patron  of 
learning,  also  did  much  to  encourage  writing  in  Spanish 
and  had  learned  Arabian  works  translated  into  Castilian 
rather  than  into  Latin.  The  Bible  was  also  translated  into 
the  vernacular  in  his  reign,  a  great  collection  of  laws  was 
issued  called  Las  Siete  Partidas  ("The  Seven  Parts"),  and 
prose  histories  in  the  Castilian  tongue  began  to  appear. 
Alfonso  was  himself  somewhat  both  of  a  poet  and  a  mu- 
sician. 

In  medieval  Italy  poetry  first  developed  in  the  south 
in  Sicily  under  Proven  gal  inspiration.  Frederick  II  was  a 
Tj    .    .  patron  of  literature  as  well  as  of  science,  and 

Beginnings       ^ 

of  Italian  was  looked  back  upon  by  Dante  as  "the  father 
of  Italian  poetry."  In  the  course  of  the  thirteenth 
century  the  Italians  produced  an  important  new  verse- 
form,  the  sonnet.  But  it  is  with  the  great  name  of  Dante, 
who  lived  from  1265  to  1321,  that  we  first  become  conscious 
of  an  Italian  literature  distinct  from  the  Provengal  and  of 
the  creation  of  a  national  literary  language.  Since  he  also 
was  the  greatest  and  the  best-known  of  all  medieval  poets 
and  since  he  wrote  just  as  the  French  romances  and  lyrics 
and  fabliaux  were  passing,  we  may  close  with  him  our 
account  of  the  prime  of  medieval  literature. 

Dante  was  born  in  Florence,  fought  for  his  city  and  wrote 
love-verses  like  many  other  young  gentlemen  of  his  day. 
Career  of  and  in  1300  became  one  of  the  six  priors  or  chief 
Dante  board  of  magistrates.    The  usual  party  strife  and 

revolutions  were  in  process,  and  besides  there  was  trouble 
with  the  pope.  By  1302  the  opposite  party  came  into  power, 
Dante  was  accused  of  peculation  during  his  recent  term  of 


MEDIEVAL   LITERATURE  411 

office,  and  was  first  fined  and  banished  for  two  years,  then 
condemned  by  the  angry  commune  to  be  burned  at  the 
stake  with  fourteen  others  of  his  party.  He  always  protested 
his  innocence  and  was  probably  simply  the  victim  of  party 
animosity,  but  he  had  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  bitter 
exile  and  wandering,  although  he  found  some  powerful 
patrons  like  the  despot  of  Verona. 

Dante  was  well  educated  like  the  second  author  of  the 
Romance  of  the  Rose.  He  knew  Aristotle  and  his  philosophy, 
Aquinas  and  his  theology,  and  was  well  ac-  His  varied 
quainted  with  the  two  leading  medieval  sciences  talents 
of  astronomy  and  astrology.  He  could  write  in  Latin  if  he 
chose,  and  he  knew  a  good  deal  about  the  great  heroes  and 
writers  of  antiquity.  He  also  had  had  experience  of  con- 
temporary politics,  and,  by  his  wanderings  from  city  to 
city  and  court  to  court,  had  acquired  a  wide  fund  of  infor- 
mation concerning  leading  men  of  the  present  or  the  recent 
past,  and  a  deep  insight  into  human  nature.  Yet  he  was 
strongly  inclined  toward  allegory  and  mystic  forms  of 
expression,  and  was  at  heart  a  stern  moralist,  lofty  idealist, 
and  devout  Roman  Catholic.  Finally,  he  had  poetic  gifts 
of  the  very  first  order. 

Dante's  earliest  considerable  work  was  the  Vita  Nuova, 
in  which  he  tells  and  sings  in  such  a  mystic,  dreamy,  and 
exalted  way  of  his  early  love  for  Beatrice  and  Minor 
of  her  untimely  death,  that  many  have  doubted  ^oi'^s 
whether  there  ever  really  was  any  such  lady.  His  Convivio, 
or  Banquet,  is  a  more  elaborate  and  learned  composition, 
discussing  in  philosophical  fashion  such  questions  as.  What 
is  true  nobility?  and.  What  is  true  love?  But  this  feast  of 
reason  is  not  set  forth  in  Latin  for  the  learned  alone,  but 
in  Italian  so  that  many  may  partake  thereof.  Dante  also 
declares  that  Italian  is  as  suitable  for  literary  purposes  as 
any  other  vernacular,  even  the  Provencal.  He  also  defended 
his  .mother  tongue  in  a  scholarly  Latin  treatise,  entitled 
De  Vulgari  Eloquentia,  upholding  it  even  against  Latin  and 
further  giving  us  much  information  about  Italian  dialects 
and  medieval  verse-forms.    In  Latin  prose  from  his  pen  we 


412        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

have  an  important  political  treatise,  the  De  Monarchia,  on 
the  proper  relations  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor. 

But  by  far  his  greatest  work  and  the  one  that  gave  fullest 
play  to  his  wide  learning  and  experience  and  varied  talents 
The  Divine  was  the  Commedia,  or  Divine  Comedy,  as  his  ad- 
Comedy  mirers  called  it,  a  long  poem  in  a  hundred  can- 

tos and  three  chief  parts,  namely,  Hell,  Purgatory,  and 
Paradise.  Dante,  in  short,  visits  the  other  world,  and  his 
guide  at  first  is  Vergil,  whose  account  of  the  realm  of  Hades 
in  the  fifth  book  of  the  Mneid  was  familiar  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  who  was  then  regarded  not  only  as  the 
greatest  Latin  poet,  but  as  an  allegorical  philosopher,  and 
even  by  some  as  a  magician.  We  must  realize  that  there 
was  hardly  any  subject  of  such  universal  interest  to  medie- 
val men  as  the  other  world.  Other- wo rldliness  had  been  a 
leading  trait  of  early  Christianity  and  of  monasticism.  The 
medieval  chroniclers  who  wrote  world-histories  customarily 
closed  their  narrative  with  a  very  circumstantial  account 
of  the  last  judgment  and  future  life  both  of  the  blest  and 
the  damned.  Indeed,  they  often  seem  to  have  fuller  and 
more  authentic  information  upon  such  points  than  concern- 
ing the  events  of  past  centuries  which  were  often  shrouded 
for  them  in  obscurity  and  legend.  Over  the  doors  of  many 
a  medieval  cathedral,  too,  the  last  judgment  was  repre- 
sented vividly  carved  in  stone,  sometimes  with  the  dead 
rising  from  their  cofhns  and  pushing  up  the  covers  or  being 
dragged  off  in  chains  by  demons  armed  with  pincers  to  a 
seething  caldron.  We  can  understand,  then,  that  Dante's 
vivid  description  of  the  hereafter  would  be  well  received, 
especially  since  it  went  into  specific  personalities  and  defi- 
nitely located  many  recent  celebrities  In  hell  or  elsewhere. 

Hell  is  depicted  by  Dante  as  a  large  hole  in  the  earth, 
circular  in  shape  and  gradually  narrowing  to  a  point  at  the 
Dante's  earth's  center.     Around  the  slopes  of  this  huge 

cosmogony  conical  cavity  run  nine  successive  circles  or  zones 
in  which  famous  sinners  both  of  the  remote  and  recent  past 
pay  the  penalty  for  their  misdeeds.  Those  guilty  of  the 
worst  crimes  are  in  the  circles  nearest  the  earth's  center  and 


MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  413 

their  sufferings  are  correspondingly  greater.  This  huge  dent 
in  our  planet  was  made  by  the  fall  from  heaven  of  the  arch- 
fiend Lucifer.  This  perturbed  spirit  seems  to  have  strictly 
observed  the  law  of  gravitation  in  his  tremendous  tumble 
and  consequently  came  to  rest  exactly  at  the  center  of  the 
earth,  and  is  forever  embedded  there  in  eternal  ice,  with  his 
head  pointing  upward  toward  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  Or, 
more  precisely,  he  has  three  heads  and  in  their  mouths  he 
gnaws  the  three  arch-traitors  of  history,  Judas  who  be- 
trayed Christ,  and  Brutus  and  Cassius  who  assassinated 
Julius  Caesar.  Vergil  takes  Dante  on  his  back  and  scrambles 
down  Lucifer's  shaggy  body  to  the  center  of  the  earth  and 
then  up  his  hairy  legs  in  the  opposite  direction  to  a  long 
tunnel  which  leads  them  toward  purgatory.  It  is  situated 
upon  a  conical  mountain  or  excrescence  in  the  midst  of 
ocean  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe.  It  corresponds  in  size 
and  shape  to  the  hollow  of  hell,  and  it,  too,  was  produced 
by  the  impact  of  Lucifer  and  the  consequent  displacement 
of  a  large  section  of  this  earth.  Around  it,  too,  runs  a  series 
of  seven  terraces,  typifying  the  seven  deadly  sins,  upon 
which  souls  that  eventually  will  be  saved  are  undergoing 
varying  degrees  of  penance.  As  Lucifer  was  at  the  pit  of 
hell,  so  the  earthly  paradise  or  Garden  of  Eden  is  at  the 
peak  of  purgatory,  and  here  Dante  has  a  vision  of  his  loved 
Beatrice.  Under  her  guidance  he  then  ascends  through  the 
celestial  spheres  of  the  moon,  Mercury,  Venus,  and  the 
sun,  and  has  converse  with  such  notables  as  Justinian  and 
Aquinas,  and  in  the  fifth  sphere  of  Mars  sees  those  who  had 
died  fighting  for  the  faith.  Dante  of  course  believed  with 
Ptolemy  that  the  sun  and  other  planets  moved  about  the 
earth  in  concentric  orbits.  After  the  spheres  of  the  seven 
planets  comes  the  eighth  heaven  of  the  fixed  stars,  the 
ninth  or  crystalline  heaven,  or  primum  mobile,  and  lastly 
the  empyrean  heaven  where  beyond  the  nine  corporeal 
spheres  is  the  throne  of  God  Triune  and  the  realm  of  pure 
intellect  and  love.  To  Dante  is  granted  a  momentary  reve- 
lation of  this  surpassing  and  ineffable  mystery,  and  with 
this  the  poem  ends. 


414        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Dante's  Commedia  is,  as  we  have  said,  the  greatest  poem 
of  medieval  literature,  but  it  is  also  one  of  the  last,  and  we 
The  last         Can  see  in  it  signs  of  decline.    The  troubadours 

medllvil  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^"^^  ^^  i^y  ^^  this  world  and  its  birds 
literature  and  flowers  and  women;  the  chansons  de  gesie 
had  rung  with  the  joy  of  battle  and  the  vigor  of  manhood ; 
the  fabliaux  had  attested  the  crude  vitality  of  the  bourgeois. 
But  Dante,  deprived  early  of  his  beloved  Beatrice,  disap- 
pointed in  the  politics  of  his  time,  disgusted  with  the 
Papacy  and  despairing  of  the  Empire  of  his  day,  and  with 
no  city  that  he  can  call  his  own,  turns  from  this  world  to 
purify  his  own  soul  and  to  warn  the  society  of  his  time  by  a 
picture  of  the  consequences  of  sin  and  error,  and  to  seek 
consolation  in  a  survey  of  the  great  departed  spirits  of  the 
past  and  of  the  glory  of  the  world  to  come.  He  has  lost  the 
gaiety  and  self-confidence  of  the  poets  of  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries,  and  in  him  the  soul  of  the  Middle 
Ages  indeed  "wears  out  the  breast." 


MEDIEVAL   LITERATURE  415 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  431-38.  Examples  of 
the  development  of  the  modern  languages  and  of  the  verse-forms  of  the 
troubadours. 

J.  H.  Smith,  The  Troubadours  at  Home,  vol.  I,  pp.  228-39;  vol.  ii,  pp.  5-12. 

Saintsbury,  The  Flourishing  of  Romance  and  the  Rise  of  Allegory :  pp.  60-66, 
the  plot  of  a  chanson  de  geste  ;  pp.  295-99,  the  burial  of  Reynard  the  Fox; 
pp.  304-09,  the  plot  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose ;  pp.  351-60,  the  plot  of 
the  Grettis  saga. 

G.  W.  Cox  and  E.  H.  Jones,  Popular  Romances  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Abbre- 
viated prose  paraphrases  of  Beowulf,  the  Nibelungenlied,  the  Norse 
sagas,  the  Arthurian  legends,  etc.    Read  any  one. 

Ellis's  translation  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose  (Temple  Classics),  vol.  I, 
lines  653-93  and  7141-90. 

Luchaire,  Social  France,  chap,  xi,  "The  Noble  Dame." 

Read  any  canto  of  the  Divine  Comedy  in  English  translation,  outline  the 
story  of  what  you  have  read,  and  explain  the  historical  and  learned 
allusions  in  the  passage.  Of  the  various  translations  of  the  Divine 
Comedy,  Gary's  was  reedited  by  Kuhns  in  1897  with  an  introduction 
and  many  explanatory  notes.  In  the  same  volume  is  included  Rossetti's 
translation  of  the  Vita  Nuova. 

Kuno  Francke,  A  History  of  German  Literature  as  determined  by  Social 
Forces,  pp.  49-52  and  131-38. 

Henderson,  Germany  in  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  xxviii,  "The  Literature  of 
Hohenstaufen  Times." 

Article  on  the  Nibelungenlied  in  the  Encyclopcedia  Britannica. 

Articles  on  "Miracle  Plays  and  Mysteries,"  and  "Asses,  Feast  of"  in  the 
Catholic  Encylcopedia. 

For  those  who  read  German,  Heine's  Essay  on  German  Literature  for  French 
Readers. 

F®r  those  who  read  French,  Lavisse,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  ii,  part  ii,  pp. 
372-79,  "  Les  Fabliaux,"  by  Ch.-V.  Langlois. 

Further  English  translations  of  medieval  literature:  — 
O'Hagan,  Song  of  Roland. 
Morris,  Old  French  Romances. 
Butler,  Tales  from  the  Old  French. 
J.  Jacobs,  Reynard  the  Fox. 
Lang,  Aucassin  et  Nicoleite. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE   MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS 

The  medieval  revival  of  civilization  which  we  have  al- 
ready traced  in  other  fields  was  accompanied  by  a  resump- 
Importance  tion  of  building  on  a  large  scale  and  in  a  durable 
ecdesiasdcal  ^^^  monumental  fashion,  such  as  had  marked 
architecture  the  heyday  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Of  the  feudal 
castle  and  municipal  buildings  we  have  already  said  some- 
thing. But  by  far  the  grandest  architecture  of  the  time  was 
ecclesiastical.  Indeed,  the  remains  of  this  medieval  religious 
architecture  which  have  survived  to  our  time  surpass  in 
number,  interest,  and  artistic  merit  the  ruins  from  any 
previous  period  of  the  world's  history.  A  cathedral  was  the 
external  expression  in  material  but  artistic  form  of  the  vast 
power  of  the  Church  in  those  days  and  of  the  religious  spirit 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  an  effort  to  symbolize  the  Church 
in  its  entirety,  to  build  a  fitting  house  for  God  and  all  the 
saints.  We  have  seen  how  Augustine  in  his  literary  master- 
piece. The  City  oj  God,  a  work  which  dominated  Christian 
thought  for  many  centuries,  set  over  against  the  declining 
world  of  ancient  Rome  the  eternal  commonwealth  of  God's 
elect,  and  sketched  in  his  fervid  rhetoric  the  ideals  and 
interests  of  that  Church  here  on  earth  which  strives  toward 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  cathedral-builders  did  in  stone 
what  he  had  done  in  words,  and  they  did  it  better.  His  argu- 
ments were  sometimes  weaker  than  his  rhetoric,  but  their 
adornment  was  in  close  accord  with  their  structure.  Few 
read  Augustine's  book  to-day,  but  many  cross  the  ocean  to 
see  the  handiwork  of  those  anonymous  architects. 

The  cathedrals  were  the  greatest  product  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  they  were  a  work  that  only  the  Middle  Ages  could 
produce.  They  show  us  what  the  Church  could  accomplish 
at  a  time  when  it  had  great  wealth  and  power  and  when 
every  one   belonged  to   it  and  believed  in  it.    They  show 


THE   MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  417 

what  Christian  society  could  accomplish  by  its  united  in- 
dustry and  imagination.    For  as  the  pope  and   Cathedrals 
feudal  lords  had  cordially  cooperated  in  the  ex-  the  peculiar 
pansion  of  Christendom  and  the  early  crusades,  so  medieval 
the  clergy  and  the  communes,  whatever  quarrels  ^°^'^*y 
they  may  have  had  over  the  control  of  town  government, 
joined  hands  in  the  work  of  building  a  vast  church  which 
would  not  only  glorify  religion,  but  be  a  credit  to  the  city 
and  serve  as  a  center  of  civic  life.    Thus  the  Italian  com- 
munes vied  with  one  another  in  the  size  and  splendor  of  their 
churches,  each  trying  to  outdo  its  neighbor.    When  one  of 
two  warring  cities  captured  any  notable  trophies  from  its 
adversary,  it  would  place  them  on  permanent  exhibition 
in  its  cathedral.  The  spacious  nave  and  aisles  also  provided 
a  splendid  assembly  hall  for  festive  occasions  and  the  church 
served  the  purpose  of  a  modern  art  museum. 

We  cannot,  or  at  any  rate  we  do  not,  build  such  structures 
to-day  and  many  a  modern  city  with  a  population  ten  times 
as  great  has  no  edifice  that  can  compare  with  the  chief 
church  in  dozens  of  French  provincial  towns.  Christians 
to-day  are  divided  into  many  bodies;  some  of  these  do  not 
care  for  especially  expensive  or  artistic  church  buildings; 
and  none  of  them  can  count  on  general  community  support 
in  such  an  enterprise.  Nor  is  there  any  other  modern  insti- 
tution or  ideal  which  unites  and  dominates  society  and 
thought  as  did  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  true 
that  society  is  richer  to-day  and  that  builders  have  the 
advantage  of  innumerable  modern  inventions.  The  de- 
mands of  modern  business  have  produced  office  buildings 
higher  and  railroad  stations  larger  than  any  medieval  cathe- 
dral, but  as  works  of  art  the  modern  structures  are  vastly 
inferior.  And  the  reason  is  that  modern  architects  have  not 
worked  out  an  original  style  of  their  own,  but  in  the  main 
copy  past  architectural  styles.  They  lack  the  interest  and 
zest  which  goes  with  the  creation  of  a  new  style.  And  they 
seem  to  lack  inspiration,  for  trusts  and  railroads  apparently 
have  no  noble  conceptions  to  express  in  their  buildings,  no 
legends  to  depict,  no  ideals  to  embody,  no  effects  to  produce. 


4i8        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

But  the  world  since  the  Middle  Ages  not  only  has  pro- 
duced no  original  edifices  to  compare  with  the  creations  of 
the  medieval  architects;  it  seldom  even  makes  a  good  copy 
of  a  Gothic  church;  and  to  reproduce  entire  one  of  those 
vaulted  cathedrals  with  all  its  wonderful  detail  would  to-day 
involve  great  difficulty  and  expense.  For  one  thing,  not 
enough  workmen  with  sufficient  artistic  ability  could  be 
secured  without  paying  exorbitant  wages.  We  have  more 
money  and  machinery  to-day  than  they  had  then,  but  there 
are  things  which  money  cannot  buy.  The  inventive  brains 
and  deft  fingers  that  fitted  and  fashioned  the  stones  of 
the  medieval  minsters  are  working  to-day  in  laboratories 
and  clinics,  and  serving  science  instead  of  religion.  Finally, 
most  modern  buildings  are  finished  in  a  few  years  at  most, 
and  often  do  not  last  much  longer.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
must  remember  that  many  cathedrals  as  we  see  them  to-day 
represent  in  their  various  parts  the  work  of  several  genera- 
tions or  even  centuries.  But  we  only  marvel  the  more  at  the 
hold  which  this  form  of  art  had  upon  the  men  of  the  past, 
and  at  the  way  in  which  they  kept  at  it.  They  might  well 
take  their  time  in  their  constructions  or  add  new  ornament 
to  the  ancient  edifice,  for  they  were  building  for  eternity. 

Strictly  speaking,  a  cathedral  is  the  church  of  a  bishop,  but 
in  this  chapter  we  shall  use  the  word  to  refer  to  any  great 
Meaning  of  medieval  church  edifice,  whether  the  abbey  of 
the  word  somc  large  monastery  or  a  collegiate  church  in  a 
large  town  and  so  served  by  a  number  of  secular 
canons  or  other  clergy.  Many  of  the  most  important  early 
Romanesque  churches  were  monastic;  it  was  only  as  the 
towns  fully  developed  that  the  bishops  residing  in  them 
were  able  to  afford  great  churches ;  and  even  at  a  later  date 
other  churches  might  be  built  in  the  towns  which  rivaled  the 
cathedrals  proper  in  size  and  beauty. 

To  the  architecture  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries 
is  given  the  name  "Romanesque"  or  "Romanic,"  because 
The  Roman-  of  its  having  developed  out  of  the  building  of  the 
esque  period  RQman  Empire,  just  as  many  languages  of  the 
Middle  Ages  are  called  "Romance"  languages  because  of 


THE   MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  419 

their  growth  from  the  spoken  Latin  of  the  late  Empire. 
Sometimes  this  art  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries 
is  called  "Later  Romanesque,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
building  of  the  earlier  Middle  Ages.  But  inasmuch  as  the 
earlier  architecture  may  be  readily  distinguished  as  either 
basilican  or  Byzantine  in  style,  we  shall  for  the  sake  of  con- 
venience and  brevity  reserve  the  term  Romanesque  for  the 
architecture  of  western  Christian  Europe  from  about  the 
year  1000  on.  For  three  hundred  years  before  that  date 
there  had  been  no  architectural  activity  worthy  of  note 
in  the  West.  After  that  date  the  building  which  we  call 
Romanesque  was  not  merely  an  imitation  or  even  a  contin- 
uation of  Roman  architecture;  much  of  it  was  experimental, 
progressive,  full  of  variety,  and  marked  by  new  features. 
Beginning  with  the  eleventh  century,  too,  Romanesque 
architecture  in  the  West  abandoned  the  round  plan  and 
chiefly  built  churches  with  long  central  naves  and  side 
aisles.  Most  of  the  round  buildings  of  the  preceding  period 
were  replaced  by  these  larger  edifices  in  the  new  style  and 
were  themselves  henceforth  used  as  baptisteries  where  they 
survived  at  all.  Some  use  was  still  made  of  the  dome,  and 
even  large  churches  were  sometimes  constructed  without 
aisles,  but  on  the  whole  the  early  Christian  basilica  was  the 
type  from  which  the  Romanesque  developed. 

The  new  churches,  however,  differed  in  a  number  of 
respects  from  the  basilicas  which  we  described  in  the  eighth 
chapter.  For  one  thing  they  were  usually  dis-  Cruciform 
tinctly  cruciform  in  plan,  with  transepts.  The  p^^" 
nave  and  aisles  were  often  much  longer  than  in  a  basilica, 
owing  to  their  being  continued  beyond 'the  transepts  to 
form  a  spacious  choir.  The  semicircular  protuberance  or 
apse  at  the  east  end  of  the  church  now  has  a  diameter  equal 
to  the  width  of  the  building,  so  that  the  two  side  aisles  meet 
there  in  a  curved  ambulatory  behind  the  high  altar  which 
was  placed  at  this  curved  end  of  the  choir.  Sometimes  be- 
yond and  surrounding  this  ambulatory  are  a  series  of  sec- 
ondary apses  or  radiating  chapels.  These  additions  of  a 
choir  and  transepts  about  tripled  the  space  covered  by  the 


420        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 


building.  The  general  features  of  this  cruciform  plan  were 
to  be  retained  in  the  later  Gothic  style.  A  feature  found 
more  in  Romanesque  than  in  Gothic  cathedrals  was  the 
raising  of  the  level  of  the  floor  of  the  choir  considerably 
above  that  of  the  rest  of  the  building  so  as  to  give  room  for 
a  crypt  underneath. 

As  a  rule  Romanesque  builders  made  their  churches  loftier 
as  well  as  larger  than  previous  ones.  This  increased  height 
Other  new  both  of  nave  and  aisles  made  necessary  larger  and 
features  stronger  supporting  columns  between  the  nave 
and  the  aisles.    Often  they  became  several  feet  in  diameter 

and    sometimes    massive   piers 
were    substituted   for  columns 
or  were  alternated  with  them 
to  give  increased  support.   The 
round  arches  which  connected 
the   rows  of  piers  or  columns 
were  now  broader  and  higher  in 
order  to  harmonize  with  their 
more  massive  supports.    Above 
these  arches  opening  into  the 
aisles  no  longer  appeared   the 
horizontal  strip  of  mosaic  of  the 
Ravenna  basilicas,  but  a  second 
series  of  archways  opening  or 
appearing  to  open  into  galleries 
above  the  aisles.   Above  this  tri- 
forium,  as  it  came  to  be  called, 
and  beneath  the  roof  were  the 
windows  of  the  clear-story.  Most 
Romanesque    churches,     espe- 
cially   when    first    built,    had 
light,  flat  roofs  of  wooden  tim- 
bers over  their  lofty  naves. '  The 
lower  and  narrower  aisles  were 
more     usually    vaulted     with 
GROUND-PLAN  OF  RHEiMS      ^^^^^  arches  or  barrel  vaults, 
CATHEDRAL  smce  their  outer  walls  could  be 


THE   MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  421 

strengthened  to  resist  the  outward  thrust  of  the  arches 
by  projecting  pilaster  strips  which  formed  soHd  buttresses 
resting  directly  upon  the  ground. 

The  churches  of  Rome,  central  Italy,  and  Tuscany  kept 
the  closest  to  the  old  columnar  basilica,  as  we  may  illustrate 
by  the  cathedral  at  Pisa,  perhaps  the  finest  The  cathe- 
Romanesque  church  in  Italy.  It  has  transepts,  a  ^""^^  ^^  ^'^^ 
lengthened  choir,  and  great  height,  and  an  elliptical  dome 
over  the  crossing  of  nave  and  transepts.  But  the  main  body 
of  the  building  is  covered  with  a  wooden  roof  and  there  are 
bare  pent-roofs  over  its  double  aisles.  Like  the  basilicas  at 
Ravenna,  it  has  a  detached  round  campanile,  the  famous 
leaning  tower.  In  the  half-dome  of  its  apse  is  a  mosaic, 
and  sixty-eight  classical  columns  taken  from  older  buildings 
carry  the  arcades  on  which  the  walls  of  its  nave  rest.  The 
exterior,  however,  has  some  Romanesque  features  common 
to  churches  of  this  period  and  which  relieve  the  monotony  of 
its  plain  walls,  although  at  Pisa  these  would  be  beautiful 
anyway,  owing  to  the  golden,  creamy  marbles  of  which  they 
are  built.  First,  pilaster  strips  project  at  frequent  intervals 
from  the  wall  and  carry  a  blind  arcade  or  series  of  engaged 
round  arches.  Secondly,  the  exterior  wall  surface  is  inter- 
rupted at  certain  places  by  open  colonnades,  which  are  set 
in  it,  and  which  are  composed  of  small  columns  with  connect- 
ing arches  and  with  an  open  gallery  between  them  and  the 
blank  wall  behind.  The  favorite  place  for  such  dwarf  gal- 
leries was  just  under  the  eaves  of  the  roof  and  especially 
around  the  curve  of  the  apse,  but  at  Pisa  there  are  two 
colonnades  one  above  the  other  on  the  apse,  four  rows  form 
the  upper  part  of  the  fagade,  while  the  leaning  tower  is 
encircled  from  top  to  bottom  with  such  colonnades. 

In  northern  Italy  more  of  an  effort  at  vaulting  was  made, 
but  it  was  especially  in  the  Romanesque  building  of  south- 
ern France  and  of  the  Cluniac  monks  in  Bur-  Experiments 
gundy  that  all  sorts  of  attempts  were  early  made  '"  vaulting 
to  solve  the  problem  of  a  stone  roof.  Sometimes  the  archi- 
tects tried  a  series  of  small  domes  or  cupolas  over  different 
sections  of  the  church;  sometimes,  plain  round  vaults;  some- 


422        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

times,  groin-vaults  made  by  the  intersection  of  two  round 
ones.  Tlie  great  and  almost  insurmountable  difficulty  was 
to  roof  the  broad  nave  with  a  vault  of  stone  and  yet  have 
windows  to  light  the  church  in  the  very  thick  and  solid 
walls  necessary  to  resist  the  thrust  of  such  a  vault.  Window 
openings,  however,  were  now  splayed  or  made  with  sloping 
sides  so  as  to  admit  more  light  and  prevent  rainwater  from 
settling,  as  it  would  on  a  flat  window  ledge. 

Southern  France  also  showed  progress  in  sculpture  and 
ornamentation.  At  Poitiers  and  Angouleme  are  churches 
Progress  in  from  this  period  whose  fagades  are  almost  com- 
and'orna-  pletely  covered  with  sculptured  figures  and 
mentation  terminate  at  either  side  in  ornamental  towers. 
Instead  of  the  plain  cubical  capital  so  often  found  in  Ro- 
manesque churches,  all  sorts  of  figures  and  designs  are  em- 
ployed upon  the  capitals  of  the  columns,  and  the  ends  of  the 
corbels  are  carved  into  grotesque  human,  animal,  and  im- 
aginary heads.  We  also  discover  first  in  southern  France 
the  treating  together  as  a  unified  architectural  composi- 
tion of  the  three  front  portals  opening  into  nave  and  aisles 
respectively. 

In  Germany  the  chief  Romanesque  structures  were  the 
great  cathedrals  of  the  Rhine  cities  and  bishoprics,  Speyer, 
Rhenish  Worms,  and  Mainz.  The  interiors  of  these  three 
Romanesque  churches  average  four  hundred  feet  in  length  and 
one  hundred  feet  in  height  of  nave.  At  first  they  had  flat 
wooden  roofs,  but  were  later  vaulted.  They  have  double 
choirs  and  a  dome  and  two  towers  at  either  end  of  the 
building.  These  relieve  the  long,  horizontal  lines  and  bare 
expanse  of  slanting  roof  of  nave  and  aisles  and  add  a  ver- 
tical or  upward  efTect.  We  find  the  usual  blind  arcades  and 
dwarf  galleries.  Similar  in  style  to  these  Rhenish  churches 
are  the  Romanesque  portions  of  the  cathedral  at  Tournai  in 
Belgium,  which  did  not  receive  a  vaulted  roof  until  the 
eighteenth  century.  Its  four  towers,  however,  instead  of 
being  in  pairs  at  both  ends  are  grouped  together  at  the  four 
corners  of  the  crossing. 

By  the  expression  "Norman  architecture"  is  indicated 


THE   MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  423 

that  of  England  and  northwestern  France  during  the 
Romanesque  period.  There  is  no  English  cathedral  which 
has  come  down  essentially  unaltered  from  that  Norman 
time,  but  there  are  many  which  in  greater  or  less  architecture 
part  are  Norman  in  character,  especially  Durham,  Norwich, 
Peterborough,  Ely,  and  Winchester.  The  Norman  churches 
usually  had  two  square  towers  at  either  side  of  the  west 
front,  a  comparatively  low  and  heavy  square  tower  or  lan- 
tern over  the  crossing  of  nave  and  transepts,  and  a  round 
apse  at  the  east  end.  Although  originally  not  vaulted,  their 
interiors  were  nevertheless  very  impressive  from  the  length 
of  the  nave,  the  height  of  its  side  walls,  and  the  regular  and 
rhythmic  succession  of  massive  piers  or  huge  round  pillars 
and  of  arches  which  composed  those  walls.  In  respect  to 
ornamentation,  however,  the  Norman  work  is  rather  rough. 
Their  sculpture  was  mainly  geometrical,  consisting  of  saw- 
edge  teeth  or  zigzag  and  spiral  grooves  cut  in  pillars  or 
arches,  and  often  hewn  with  an  axe.  When  they  attempted 
a  few  animal  or  human  or  angelic  figures,  in  the  semicircular 
space  above  a  door  in  an  archway  or  on  the  sides  of  a  mas- 
sive baptismal  font  that  one  might  well  mistake  for  a  horse- 
trough,  the  work  was  generally  crude  and  indistinct. 

Our  discussion  of  Romanesque  architecture  omitted,  with 
the  exception  of  Normandy  and  Flanders,  the  provinces  of 
northern  and  east  central  France,  because  here  Northern 
in  especial  experimentation  was  going  on  which  French 

1       1     •        1  ir  1  •        r  •  origin  of 

resulted,  m  the  tweltth  century,  m  the  creation  Gothic 
of  the  Gothic  style.  Champagne  and  the  lie  de  a-'chitecture 
France  were  rather  backward  in  the  Romanesque  period, 
but  they  were  to  take  the  lead  in  the  production  of  the  new 
style,  just  as  from  the  neighborhood  of  Paris  and  the  royal 
court  came  the  dialect  that  was  to  become  the  French  lan- 
guage. The  misleading  name,  "Gothic,"  was  foisted  upon 
this  style  of  architecture  by  Italians  of  the  Renaissance 
period  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  who  had  no 
sympathy  with  any  but  classical  buildings,  and  who,  be- 
cause a  good  deal  of  the  perverted  Gothic  architecture  in 
their  own  Italy  had  come  to  them  by  way  of  Germany,  con- 


424        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

eluded  that  Gothic  was  a  fitting  name  for  a  style  which  they 
believed  to  be  the  work  of  a  barbarous  age.  Nor  did  the 
French  at  that  time  care  to  claim  Gothic  art  as  their  own 
creation,  since  they  too  had  gone  back  to  imitation  of  clas- 
sical art  and  for  centuries  neglected  their  marvelous  medie- 
val churches.  Only  in  the  course  of  the  last  century,  to- 
gether with  the  Romantic  movement  in  literature  and  the 
better  knowledge  of  the  Middle  Ages  resulting  from  modern 
historical  scholarship,  has  there  been  real  investigation, 
comprehension,  and  appreciation  of  Gothic  architecture. 

It  has  been  said  that  "the  inert  principle  of  construction, 
the  massive  walls,  the  small  apertures,  and  the  horizon- 
Gothic  tal  lines  of  the  Romanesque  architecture  make 
construction  j^  g^jij  closely  akin  to  the  old  Roman  style." 
Gothic,  instead  of  being  inert,  is  a  decidedly  energetic  con- 
struction where  thrust  and  counter-thrust  are  in  perfect 
equilibrium.  Instead  of  massive  walls,  it  scarcely  has  walls 
at  all.  Its  vaulted  stone  roof  is  upheld  by  a  network  of  stone 
ribs  and  flying  buttresses  which  carry  the  weight  to  a  few 
selected  points  where  adequate  piers  and  buttresses  receive 
and  support  it.  Instead  of  small  apertures,  the  front  and 
sides  and  end  of  the  cathedral  are  almost  continuous  sheets 
of  stained  glass,  separated  into  arched  windows  only  by  the 
ribs  of  the  structural  skeleton.  Instead  of  horizontal  lines, 
every  column  and  arch  and  rib  and  vault  and  roof  and  but- 
tress carries  the  eye  upward.  The  church  is  actually  higher 
than  the  average  Romanesque  church  and  it  appears  to  be 
vastly  more  so.  These  changes  have  been  effected  largely 
through  two  important  innovations,  the  pointed  arch  and 
the  flying  buttress. 

Hitherto  the  round  arch  had  been  employed  in  vaulting, 
in  nave  arches,  in  triforium,  in  doorways  and  windows. 
The  pointed  and  in  all  architectural  adornment.  It  seriously 
arch  restricted  the  builders,  since  it  must  be  always 

exactly  half  as  high  as  its  width  and  since  all  arches  of  the 
same  height  or  width  must  be  exactly  alike.  The  pointed 
arch  had  been  known  before  Gothic  architecture  started, 
but  the  systematic  employment  of  it  both  in  structure 


THE  MEDIEVAL  CATHEDRALS  425 

and  ornamentation  is  characteristic  of  the  Gothic.  Pointed 
vaults  and  arches  permit  almost  endless  variety,  since  height 
and  width  do  not  have  to  be  in  any  fixed  ratio.  And  they 
are  stronger  structurally,  since  they  do  not  tend  to  spread 
outward  as  much  as  the  Roman  arch.  By  coming  to  a  point 
at  the  top,  they  lead  the  eye  upward  and  were  especially 
adapted  to  the  lofty  effects  which  the  architects  were  striv- 
ing to  obtain. 

A  solid  buttress  rests  on  the  ground  and  is  built  directly 
into  or  against  the  wall  of  a  building  at  points  where  addi- 
tional thickness  and  strength  are  necessary.  We  The  flying 
have  seen  that  the  outer  walls  of  the  side  aisles  buttress 
were  often  so  braced  in  Romanesque  buildings.  But  the 
loftier  and  heavier  walls  of  the  nave  above  the  roofs  of  the 
aisles  could  not  be  so  braced.  Here  the  flying  buttress  came 
in.  Touching  the  wall  of  the  nave  only  at  one  end,  it  sprang 
clear  of  the  roof  of  the  aisle  in  an  arc  of  stone  whose  other 
extremity  rested  on  one  of  the  solid  buttresses  that  rose  from 
the  ground  to  meet  it.  Thus  no  new  weight  was  put  upon 
the  roof  of  the  aisle,  and  the  buttresses  of  the  outer  walls 
of  the  aisles  were  made  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  nave  wall 
as  well.  Of  course,  to  do  this,  they  had  to  be  made  thicker. 
The  flying  buttresses,  moreover,  not  merely  propped  up  the 
side  walls  of  the  nave,  but  were  placed  at  the  proper  points 
to  receive  the  thrust  of  the  heavy  vaulted  roof.  Of  course, 
some  of  the  weight  of  the  nave  walls  and  roof  still  rested  on 
the  rows  of  columns  within  the  church,  but  these  did  not 
need  to  be  as  massive  as  before.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they 
remained  nearly  as  great  in  actual  diameter  as  before,  but 
were  made  higher  and  were  placed  at  greater  intervals  apart. 
Also  the  square  piers  and  huge  round  pillars  were  replaced 
by  more  graceful  clusters  of  slender  columns,  which  hid  the 
central  core  of  masonry  that  united  and  strengthened  them, 
and  from  which  as  they  rose  diverged  the  supporting  ribs 
of  the  arched  vaulting  overhead.  Since  these  ribs,  columns, 
and  flying  buttresses  supported  the  whole  burden  of  the 
vaulting,  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  have  thick  or  solid 
walls  in  the  nave,  and  the  clear-story  could  be  given  over 


426        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

almost  entirely  to  windov/s,  especially  as  the  flying  but- 
tresses cut  off  practically  no  light  from  outside. 

In  speaking  of  pointed  arches,  flying  buttresses,  columns, 
and  ribs  in  vaulting  we  have  faintly  suggested  the  increased 
Grace  and  grace,  variety,  and  elaborateness  of  architec- 
of^othlc^  tural  memberment  in  a  Gothic  cathedral.  We 
memberment  cannot  attempt  to  deal  here  with  all  the  detail  of 
shafts,  capitals,  mouldings,  groining,  and  other  architectural 
features  which  enriched  the  Gothic  style.  It  had  little  need 
for  wall  paintings  or  mosaics  and  had  little  flat  wall  space 
available  for  them.  But,  although  the  construction  itself 
gave  rise  to  a  deal  of  ornamentation,  it  was  further  adorned 
with  sculpture  and  enriched  with  stained  glass. 

Gothic  architecture  itself  often  seems  an  exquisite  lace- 
work  in  stone  which  might  be  the  masterpiece  of  some  giant 
Gothic  sculptor.  Medieval  sculpture,  on  the  other  hand, 

sculpture  ^^^^  usually  subordinated  to  architectural  pur- 
poses. Some  very  crude  and  some  very  fine  sculpture  was 
produced  in  connection  with  the  cathedrals.  The  statues 
were  as  a  rule  carved  from  the  same  stone  that  was  used  in 
building  the  church,  and  were  made  to  fit  into  the  architec- 
tural scheme  and  often  to  fill  a  certain  place.  Consequently 
their  proportions  may  be  unnatural  in  themselves  but  are 
just  right  to  harmonize  with  the  building.  They  differ 
further  from  classical  sculpture  in  that  their  aim  is  not  to 
express  beauty  and  physical  grace,  but  saintliness  and  devo- 
tion, or  to  symbolize  some  Christian  doctrine  or  mystery. 
Realism  and  grotesque  humor  often  appear,  however,  just 
as  in  the  fabliaux  and  the  mystery  and  miracle  plays. 
Remarkable  fancy  is  evidenced  in  some  of  the  strange  mon- 
sters and  chimeras  on  buttress  and  parapet,  and  wonder- 
fully delicate  stone  carving  is  seen  in  the  interior  of  many 
churches  large  and  small.  Sometimes  even  the  shafts  of 
small  columns  and  the  mouldings  of  arches  were  intricately 
carved,  and  sculptured  heads  covered  the  groining  of  the 
arches  and  the  springing  of  the  vaults.  Even  the  coarser 
external  work  exposed  to  the  weather  was  executed  with 
remarkable  fidelity,  and  sometimes  animal  grotesques  high 


THE  MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  427 

up  on  the  roof  were  carefully  sculptured  in  every  muscle 
and  fold  of  their  skins,  behind  as  well  as  in  front  and  below 
as  well  as  above.  Either  the  artist  thought  that  God  would 
see  it  even  if  men  did  not,  or  he  executed  the  work  so  thor- 
oughly because  he  liked  to  do  it.  Such  were  the  sculptors 
who  in  carving  floral  designs  about  a  capital  would  amuse 
themselves  by  occasionally  converting  a  petal  into  a  face  or 
hide  an  imp  in  a  mass  of  foliage.  In  the  choir  stalls  the 
under  sides  of  the  folding  seats  were  sometimes  covered 
with  the  most  exquisite  wood  carving. 

In  place  of  the  Byzantine  mosaics  the  Gothic  cathedrals 
had  transparent  colored  designs  in  their  stained-glass  win- 
dows. We  first  learn  of  the  making  of  stained  glass  stained 
from  a  treatise  on  various  industrial  and  artistic  ^^^^^ 
processes  written  by  the  monk  Theophilus  in  the  twelfth 
century.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  coloring  matter  was 
diffused  into  the  mass  of  glass  while  it  was  yet  in  the  melting- 
pot,  so  that  it  was  colored  all  through  and  was  of  a  brighter 
hue  than  in  later  times  when  it  was  merely  tinted  upon  the 
surface.  The  windows  were  made  up  of  small  bits  of  glass 
which  were  pieced  together  and  held  in  place  by  leads.  This 
thirteenth-century  glass  was  imperfect  in  character,  and 
since  the  fragments  of  it  differed  further  in  shape  and  size, 
the  rays  of  light  in  passing  through  them  were  broken  up  the 
more,  and  there  was  much  blending  of  the  different  colors 
and  very  brilliant  effects  were  produced  like  the  glittering  of 
jewels.  The  leads  were  skillfully  employed  to  form  the  out- 
lines of  the  human  and  other  figures  depicted  in  the  design, 
whereas  later,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  large  plates  of 
painted  glass  were  used,  the  leads  were  arranged  in  mechani- 
cal squares  and  would  sometimes  run  across  a  saint's  face  or 
sever  his  body.  In  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  discovered 
how  to  stain  glass  yellow  by  means  of  silver;  before  this, 
purple  had  been  the  favorite  color,  but  it  did  not  admit  as 
much  light.  It  was  also  discovered  early  in  the  fourteenth 
century  that,  by  dipping  the  blow-pipe  first  into  liquid  glass 
of  one  color  and  then  into  that  of  another  color,  a  sheet  of 
glass  could  be  blown  of  one  color  on  one  side  and  another 


428        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

on  the  reverse.  Less  glass  has  survived  from  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  however,  than  from  the  thirteenth 
and  sixteenth.  After  the  latter  century  interest  in  stained 
glass  ceased  and  the  art  practically  died  out.  Also  religious 
fanatics  smashed  many  of  the  wonderful  old  windows  as 
well  as  the  statues  of  the  cathedrals. 

The  most  ornamented  portion  of  the  medieval  Gothic 
cathedral  was  usually  the  fagade  or  west  front.  Here  was 
The  facade  ^^^  main  entrance  in  the  form  of  recessed  por- 
of  a  Gothic  tals,  generally  three  in  number,  like  the  Trinity, 
and  whose  sides  and  arches  were  completely 
covered  with  statuary.  These  recessed  portals  also  served 
the  purpose  of  concealing  and  adorning  the  lower  parts  of 
the  great  buttresses  which  supported  the  front  of  the  church 
—  a  good  instance  of  the  close  relationship  that  was  almost 
invariably  observed  between  structure  and  decoration.  On 
either  side  of  the  portals  rose  towers  completely  masking 
the  roofs  of  the  aisles.  Over  the  portals  and  between  the 
towers  was  a  large  round  or  rose  window  perhaps  forty  feet 
in  diameter  lighting  that  end  of  the  nave.  Above  or  beneath 
it  were  rows  of  statues  or  decorative  arcades  and  colonnades. 
The  buttresses  before  mentioned  were  ornamented  in  one 
way  or  another  in  their  upper  portions,  sometimes  by  niches 
and  panoplies  cut  in  them,  and  in  and  under  which  stood 
large  single  statues.  This  sculptured  screen  which  we  have 
suggested  was  usually  carried  up  between  the  towers  so 
that  it  entirely  hid  the  ridgepole  of  the  nave  behind  it. 

If  we  leave  the  front  of  the  cathedral  and  walk  along 
either  side,  we  see  the  line  of  solid  and  flying  buttresses 
Circuit  of  clothing  and  supporting  the  main  body  of  the 
the  cathedral  church.  In  the  earliest  Gothic  churches  these 
props  were  left  bare  and  heavy,  but  soon  they  were  made 
graceful  in  form,  were  adorned  with  carvings,  mouldings, 
and  statues,  and  sometimes  were  even  perforated  with 
arched  and  circular  openings.  It  is  necessary  to  check  the 
outward  thrust  of  the  flying  arch  at  the  point  where  the 
flying  buttress  rests  on  the  solid  support  below,  and  this  is 
done  by  superimposing  at  this  point  a  beautiful  stone  pin- 


THE  MEDIEVAL  CATHEDRALS  429 

nacle  or  a  statue  of  more  than  life-size  which  serves  to  clamp 
down  the  outer  end  of  the  flying  arch.  The  long  line  of  these 
pinnacles  and  statues,  the  intricate  tracery  of  the  flying 
buttresses,  and  the  fantastic  gargoyles,  in  which  terminate 
the  eaves-spouts  that  carry  the  rainwater  off  the  roofs  clear 
of  the  stonework  below,  form  a  graceful  and  symmetrical 
thicket  of  architecture  and  sculpture  which  half  conceals 
and  half  discloses  the  main  building.  We  get  new  vistas  and 
effects  where  the  transept  projects  at  a  right  angle  and  again 
where  the  apse  curves  in  a  semicircle.  The  end  of  the 
transept  has  another  rose  window  and  sometimes  rather 
elaborately  decorated  portals,  so  that  it  forms  a  sort  of 
combination  of,  or  cross  between,  the  features  of  the  fagade 
and  of  the  side  of  the  nave.  The  exterior  of  the  choir,  too,  is 
often  treated  somewhat  differently  from  the  nave,  although 
in  general  harmony  with  it. 

In  short,  to  get  a  satisfactory  appreciation  of  the  exterior 
of  a  Gothic  cathedral  one  must  walk  all  around  it  and  sur- 
vey it  carefully  from  top  to  bottom.  As  the  Psalmist  says, 
"Walk  about  Zion,  and  go  round  about  her:  tell  the  towers 
thereof.  Mark  ye  well  her  bulwarks,  consider  her  palaces; 
that  ye  may  tell  it  to  the  generation  following."  High  aloft 
on  the  arcades  of  the  apse,  the  parapets  of  the  roof,  or  the 
battlements  of  the  towers,  are  not  only  figures  of  saints  and 
angels,  but  various  animals  and  chimeras,  goblins  and 
demons,  forces  of  the  mysterious  world  of  nature  and  of  the 
other  spiritual  world,  forces  for  evil  as  well  as  forces  for 
good,  since  both  exist  in  this  world  by  divine  permission. 
These,  together  with  the  bristling  array  of  pinnacles  and 
buttresses  and  the  statues  and  gargoyles  upon  them,  guard, 
as  it  were,  the  sanctuary  within  or  threaten  those  who 
remain  without.  He  who  wishes  to  see  the  interior  of  the 
house  of  God  must  enter  in  by  the  door  and  not  try  to  climb 
up  some  other  way.  And  the  doorways,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  are  rich  in  sculpture  to  remind  him  of  church  legend 
and  teaching  and  to  prepare  him  for  the  yet  more  solemn 
sensation  made  by  the  spacious,  stately  vaults  and  grand 
perspective   of  the  interior,   and  by  the  brighter,   more 


430        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

radiant  saints,  apostles,  and  martyrs  of  its  glowing  win- 
dows. 

It  was  in  France  that  Gothic  not  only  originated,  but 
attained  its  purest  form,  and  that  architects  were  most 
Gothic  skillful  structurally.    But  the  new  style  spread 

architecture  ^^  over  westem  Europe  from  Spain  to  Bohemia. 
France  It  is  seen  in  the  Rhine  Valley  in  the  second  half 

of  the  thirteenth  century  in  the  nave  of  the  great  cathedral 
of  Strassburg  which  was  built  in  the  French  style,  in  the 
choir  of  Cologne  which  is  a  copy  of  Amiens,  and  in  Metz 
which  was  now  begun  under  the  influence  of  the  Rheims 
school  of  architects.  In  England  Westminster  Abbey,  also 
built  in  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  is  of  all 
English  cathedrals  that  which  most  closely  resembles  the 
French  Gothic  style.  But  Gothic  influence  is  seen  earlier 
in  the  century  in  the  so-called  "Early  English"  style. 

A  number  of  peculiarities  distinguishing  English  from 
French  Gothic  churches  may  be  noted.  English  cathedrals 
Earl '  ^^  ^^^  have  such  broad  naves  or  such  lofty 

English  vaulting,  but  they  are  often  longer,  partly  be- 

cause the  choir  is  extended  to  as  great  or  an 
even  greater  length  than  the  nave  and  sometimes  has  a 
second  pair  of  transepts  of  its  own,  partly  because  supple- 
mentary structures  such  as  Lady  chapels  and  presbyteries 
are  often  added  at  the  east  end.  This  end  of  the  church 
is  usually  square  instead  of  rounded.  Generally  there  is 
one  main  tower  over  the  crossing  rather  than  two  at  the 
west  front.  The  facade  is  frequently  a  broad  screen  of 
arcades  and  sculpture  hiding  the  smaller  actual  front  of 
the  church  and  not  having  any  close  structural  relation 
to  it.  Indeed,  such  fagade  screens  often  were  later  ad- 
ditions in  a  totally  different  style  from  the  original  nave, 
which  it  was  therefore  advisable  to  cover  up.  In  the  Early 
English  style  the  central  wheel  or  rose  window  is  not  so 
inevitable  a  feature  and  when  employed  is  smaller  than  in 
French  churches.  The  English  clear-story  windows  do  not 
completely  occupy  the  pointed  arches  formed  by  the  vaults 
of  the  roof,  and  often  there  is  a  cluster  of  three  narrow  win- 


THE  MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  431 

dows  instead  of  one  large  aperture.  Inside  the  church  the 
ribs  bearing  the  vaults  are  not  always  carried  straight  up 
from  the  supporting  columns,  but  spring  out  of  the  wall  at 
points  high  above  the  floor,  and  often  more  ribs  are  used 
than  are  needed,  giving  a  fanlike  appearance  to  the  vaulting. 
The  flying  buttress  is  not  employed  on  so  great  a  scale  or 
with  such  structural  skill.  Wooden  roofs  are  still  employed 
in  many  cases,  although  they  no  longer  appear  flat,  but  are 
built  in  imitation  of  vaults.  For  these  structural  deficiencies 
or  idiosyncrasies  the  Early  English  in  part  atones  by  the 
beauty  of  its  details,  its  sharply  pointed  lancet  windows  and 
blind  arcades,  its  slender  shafts  and  comely  capitals,  its 
intricate  mouldings  and  carvings.  Later  varieties  of  English 
Gothic  are  called  the  "  Decorated  "  and  the  "  Perpendicular  " 
styles,  respectively. 

The  Romanesque  held  its  own  on  German  soil  well  into 
the  thirteenth  century.  East  of  the  Rhine  church  edifices 
were  as  a  rule  on  a  humbler  scale  and  in  less  German 
perfect  taste  than  were  the  great  Rhenish  ca-  and  Italian 
thedrals  which  followed  French  models  more 
closely.  More  wall  space  is  left  bare  both  within  and  with- 
out; the  transepts  are  less  distinct,  and  there  is  seldom 
an  ambulatory  about  the  choir;  the  aisles  and  nave  are 
sometimes  of  the  same  height.  In  Italy  the  Gothic  style 
took  the  least  hold.  The  apsidal  aisle  was  even  more  un- 
common than  in  Germany  and  the  fagade  had  as  little 
relation  to  the  building  behind  it  as  in  Early  English.  The 
flying  buttress  was  almost  never  employed,  the  windows 
remained  small,  and  in  general  little  constructive  genius 
was  shown.  There  was  no  arched  triforium  within  and  a 
bare  expanse  of  wall  appeared  in  the  clear-story.  The  piers 
supporting  the  simple  vaulting  of  the  interior  were  them- 
selves usually  plain  and  square.  The  towers  continued  to  be 
detached  campaniles  and  were  not  very  different  from  their 
Romanesque  predecessors. 

North  of  the  Alps,  however,  the  Gothic  towers  both  of 
France  and  other  lands  deserve  especial  recognition  by  their 
height,  open  arches,  and  detail  of  ornamentation.   It  is  dififi- 


432        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

cult  to  make  a  selection  among  so  many  marvelous  struc- 
Gothic  tures,  but  the  reader  can  get  some  idea  of  their 

towers  varied  merits  by  examining  detailed  views  of  the 

twin  yet  contrasting  front  towers  of  Chartres,  the  one  in  the 
severely  pure  style  of  the  closing  twelfth  century,  the  other 
a  richly  ornate  spire  added  in  the  early  sixteenth,  and 
which  are  respectively  three  hundred  and  fifty  and  three 
hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  in  height.  Or  of  the  central 
lantern  of  Lincoln  from  the  thirteenth,  and  the  filmy  octag- 
onal crown  from  the  fourteenth  century  above  the  tran- 
septs of  St.  Ouen  in  Rouen ;  or  of  the  intricate  and  delicate 
open-work  spires  of  Freiburg,  Strassburg,  and  Cologne. 

Such  were  the  Gothic  cathedrals.  The  style  originated  in 
the  twelfth  century  and  reached  the  highest  point  of  excel- 
lence in  the  thirteenth.  But  many  churches  were 
not  entirely  finished  until  later,  or  received  ad- 
ditions especially  in  ornamentation  which  enhanced  their 
beauty.  Some  fine  cathedrals  were  not  started  until  the 
fourteenth  century,  but  those  of  Chartres,  Amiens,  Rouen, 
Paris,  and  Rheims,  which  are  alike  of  vast  proportions  and 
the  very  first  rank,  were  all  finished  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  a  decline  in  Gothic  art  becomes. noticeable  in  the 
later  Middle  Ages. 

If  medieval  sculpture  was  done  chiefly  in  connection  with 
buildings,  medieval  painting  was  performed  chiefly  in  con- 
Medieval  nection  with  books.  The  pages  of  manuscripts 
painting  -were  adorned  with  miniatures  and  illuminations 
which  in  their  brilliant  hues  rival  the  Byzantine  mosaics  and 
the  Gothic  stained  glass,  and  which  in  their  realistic  touches, 
picturesque  scenes,  and  uncouth  monsters  remind  us  of  the 
stone  carvings.  In  Italy,  where  the  churches  had  more  bare 
wall  surface,  a  good  deal  of  fresco  painting  was  done,  and 
finally  Giotto,  a  contemporary  of  Dante,  broke  away  from 
the  stiff  symbolism  of  the  earlier  school  and  began  to  repre- 
sent scenes  from  the  Bible  and  from  the  lives  of  the  saints 
in  what  seemed  to  his  contemporaries  a  dramatic  and  life- 
like manner.  But  of  him  we  shall  speak  again  later  as  a  fore- 
runner of  the  greater  painters  of  the  Italian  Renaissance. 


THE  MEDIEVAL   CATHEDRALS  433 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Romanesque  and  Gothic  Architecture. 

Sturgis  and  Frothingham,  A  History  of  Architecture,  is  one  of  the  most 
recent  and  finely  illustrated  histories  of  architecture.  Its  text  is, 
however,  like  that  of  the  others,  rather  trying  to  the  non-technical 
reader.  In  vol.  li,  book  ix,  will  be  found  chapters  on  the  different 
varieties  of  Romanesque  architecture,  and  in  vol.  iii,  books  x  and  xi, 
a  similar  treatment  of  Gothic. 

Moore,  Gothic  Architecture,  chap.  I.  A  concise  and  brilliant  exposition 
of  the  principles  of  the  Gothic  style. 

C.  H.  Sherill.    Stained  Glass  Tours  in  France  (1908). 

Questions  on  Views  of  Cathedrals. 

1.  Find  six  pictures  of  medieval  cathedrals,  namely,  a  general  view  of 
the  exterior,  a  more  detailed  view  of  some  particular  part  of  the 
exterior,  as  general  an  interior  view  as  possible,  a  closer  view  of  some 
portion  of  the  interior,  an  example  of  serious  sculpture,  and  a  speci- 
men of  grotesque  sculpture  such  as  a  gargoyle,  chimera,  or  fantastic 
wood  carving.  Try  to  include  in  your  selection  specimens  of  Roman- 
esque as  well  as  of  Gothic  architecture,  and  of  churches  outside  as 
well  as  in  France.    State  of  what  style  each  view  is  and  from  what 

country  each  view  comes. 

2.  In  the  case  of  the  two  general  views  of  exterior  and  interior,  state 
from  what  point  the  view  seems  to  have  been  taken,  and  identify  all 
the  parts  that  are  visible  —  such  as  towers,  transepts,  apse,  portals, 
buttresses,  triforium,  clear-story,  choir,  nave,  ambulatory,  etc. 

3.  Similarly  identify  the  partial  views  of  exterior  and  interior,  and  point 
out  the  smaller  details  of  architectural  members  and  sculpture. 

4.  In  the  case  of  the  two  specimens  of  sculpture,  state  whether  the 
execution  seems  skillful  or  clumsy,  and  where  within  or  without  the 
edifice  the  statue  or  carving  was  placed. 

5.  Which  of  the  six  views  do  you  like  best  and  why? 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  CHURCH  UNDER  INNOCENT  III 

While  towns,   industries,  and  trade  developed,   while 

learning,  literature,  and  art  blossomed  forth,  although  these 

„,  new  forces  had  their  secular  side,  yet,  as  the 

Innocent  HI  i        /^i  i  •  i     • 

cathedrals  suggest,  the  Church  continued  its 
growth  too,  and  with  Innocent  III,  at  the  opening  of  the 
thirteenth  century  (ii 98-1 21 6),  the  Papacy  reached  its 
height.  Lotario  de  Segni  was  the  son  of  an  Italian  noble, 
and  was  handsome  in  appearance  and  commanding  in  man- 
ner, though  slight  in  stature.  Although  he  was  the  youngest 
of  the  cardinals,  his  colleagues  promptly  elected  him  pope 
on  the  same  day  that  the  preceding  pontiff  died.  Thus,  at 
the  unusually  early  age  of  thirty-seven  he  entered  upon  the 
arduous  duties  and  responsibilities  of  that  high  office  with 
all  the  unabated  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  the  prime  of 
manhood.  He  was  already  known  for  his  eloquence  and 
legal  and  theological  knowledge  acquired  at  Bologna  and 
Paris,  and  as  pope  he  granted  the  University  of  Paris  some 
of  its  earliest  privileges  and  filled  his  curia  w^ith  canonists 
and  jurists  from  Bologna.  But  he  knew  men  as  well  as 
books,  and  it  was  more  probably  the  ability  as  an  adminis- 
trator and  man  of  affairs  which  he  had  displayed  in  the 
papal  court  for  the  past  ten  years  that  procured  him  his 
election.  Once  pope,  he  took  control  with  a  master-hand, 
and  in  the  very  first  year  of  his  pontificate  made  himself 
felt  all  over  Europe.  His  letters,  which  constitute  the  best 
source  for  his  reign,  show  how  vigorously  and  incisively  and 
sensibly  he  dealt  with  every  situation  and  problem. 

Western  Christian  Europe  at  that  time  was  still  a  chaos 
of  contending  feudal  principalities  and  warring  communes. 
The  Church  The  one  thing  that  united  men  was  the  Church 
universal  ^q  which  they  all  belonged.  There  were  English, 
Welsh,    Irish,    Flemings,    Bretons,    Gascons,    Castilians, 


THE   CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         435 

Savoyards,  Florentines,  Venetians,  Pisans,  Bavarians, 
Bohemians,  and  Saxons  then;  but  there  were  no  Presbyteri- 
ans, Methodists,  Baptists,  Christian  Scientists,  Quakers, 
Memnonites,  and  CongregationaHsts.  The  Church  was  the 
one  universal  institution  of  the  age  and  the  pope  at  its  head 
in  consequence  exercised  far  greater  authority  than  did  any 
other  potentate.  In  many  ways,  indeed,  the  Church  was 
comparable  to  the  Roman  Empire  of  old,  whose  territorial 
and  administrative  organization  it  had  taken  over  and 
whose  official  language,  Latin,  it  still  maintained  in  its 
services,  records,  and  literature.  Both  were  international  in 
character.  Every  one  recognized  the  pope  as  every  one  had 
worshiped  the  emperor.  The  Church  had  its  legal  system 
and  courts.  Its  cathedrals  added  to  the  massive  architec- 
ture and  stately  sculpture  of  triumphal  arches  and  amphi- 
theaters the  glorious  radiance  of  stained  glass  and  the 
diaphanous  stone  lacework  of  spire,  pinnacle,  and  flying 
buttress.  Its  missionaries  and  crusaders  on  the  frontiers  of 
Christendom  were  like  the  ancient  legionaries  on  the  Roman 
borders.  Its  monasteries  were  scattered  over  the  face  of  the 
land  as  thickly  as  had  been  the  Roman  military  camps  and 
colonies.  Its  secular  clergy  corresponded  to  the  adminis- 
trative bureaucracy  of  the  Empire.  And  at  the  head  and 
center  of  it  all,  watching  over  the  whole  world,  interfering 
in  everything,  exercising  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual 
power,  receiving  reports  and  questions  and  appeals  from  all 
quarters,  and  reserving  to  himself  the  settlement  of  all  ques- 
tions in  the  last  resort,  sat  Innocent  III  with  an  authority 
quite  comparable  to  that  of  a  Trajan  or  a  Diocletian.  We 
shall  now  describe  the  Church  and  clergy  as  organized  under 
him. 

Associated  with  the  pope  at  Rome  was  the  college  of 
cardinals,  constituting  a  sort  of  cabinet,  while  a  host  of 
lesser  assistants  performed  secretarial  and  legal  The  papal 
functions  or  attended  to  the  court  ceremonial.  """^^ 
At  the  beginning  of  his  reign  Innocent  tried,  like  most  popes, 
to  reform  the  personnel  of  the  papal  curia,  to  restrict  its 
membership  to  clergymen,  and  to  prevent  the  taking  of 


436       THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

bribes.  As  he  did  not,  however,  absolutely  forbid  the  giving 
of  gratuities,  most  suitors  at  the  papal  court  still  deemed  it 
expedient  to  scatter  money  with  a  free  hand.  It  was  indeed 
remarkable  that,  although  many  a  pope  reformed  this  body 
at  the  opening  of  his  ^  pontificate,  it  always  seems  to  have 
needed  reform  by  the  time  the  next  pope  entered  office. 

From  the  pope's  side  legates  went  forth  to  various  parts 
of  Europe  to  execute  his  will  or  to  inspect  conditions  and 
Papal  report  upon  them  to  him.     They  were  held  to 

legates  strict  account  if  they  failed  to  carry  out  Inno- 

cent's instructions  to  his  satisfaction.  One  in  particular, 
who  absolved  one  of  the  rival  candidates  for  the  German 
throne  without  first  securing  from  him  the  release  of  certain 
prisoners,  was  upon  his  return  deprived  by  Innocent  of  his 
bishopric  and  banished  to  an  island  to  pass  the  rest  of  his  life 
as  a  simple  monk. 

It  had  long  been  customary  for  newly  elected  archbishops 
to  receive  from  the  pope  a  scarf  or  collar  called  the  pallium. 
Archbishops  By  withholding  this  badge  of  their  office  the 
and  bishops  pope  could  practically  veto  their  appointment. 
Innocent  in  one  of  the  decrees  of  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council 
of  1215  speaks  of  an  archbishop's  "receiving  the  pallium, 
that  is  to  say,  the  full  right  to  fill  his  office."  The  archbishop 
had  a  certain  authority  over  a  number  of  bishops  whom  he 
could  summon  to  a  provincial  synod,  but  some  bishops  were 
practically  independent  of  archiepiscopal  control  and  the 
authority  of  different  archbishops  was  very  unequal.  In 
England  there  were  seventeen  bishops  under  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  only  two  under  the  Archbishop  of  York. 
Before  Innocent's  time  the  monasteries  had  pretty  generally 
escaped  from  the  control  of  the  local  bishop  and  had  come 
directly  under  papal  supervision.  From  the  time  of  Innocent 
the  popes  claimed  more  and  more  the  right  to  depose  bish- 
ops and  archbishops  if  their  administration  or  character 
proved  unsatisfactory,  and  to  refuse  on  occasion  to  approve 
of  the  elections  of  bishops  as  well  as  to  withhold  the  pallium 
from  archbishops.  Sometimes,  however,  it  was  not  easy  to 
depose  a  prelate  whose  see  was  far  from  Rome.   In  the  case 


THE   CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         437 

of  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  for  instance,  Innocent  had 
to  content  himself  with  scolding  him  by  letter  for  living  a 
life  of  plunder  and  keeping  a  court  of  brigands.  This  also 
illustrates  the  fact  that  many  bishops  still  followed  the 
career  of  feudal  lords  rather  than  of  ministers  of  Christ. 
When  Richard  the  Lion-Hearted  was  asked  by  one  of  Inno- 
cent's legates  to  free  Philip  of  Dreux,  Bishop  of  Beauvais 
and  a  cousin  of  the  French  king,  whom  he  was  keeping  in 
chains  in  a  dungeon,  he  indignantly  replied  that  Philip  had 
not  been  captured  as  a  bishop,  but  as  a  knight  in  full  armor, 
and  furthermore  that  he  was  a  "  robber,  tyrant,  and  incen- 
diary who  did  nothing  but  devastate  Richard's  lands  day 
and  night."  Indeed,  Innocent  knew  well  enough  that  Philip 
was  not  a  desirable  type  of  bishop  and  afterwards  refused 
to  approve  his  election  as  Archbishop  of  Rheims. 

Each  bishop  had  his  own  cathedral  church,  usually 
located  in  a  town;  in  fact,  in  England  no  place  was  called  a 
city  unless  it  had  a  cathedral.  The  bishop  shared  r^^^  cathe- 
his  great  church  with  a  cathedral  chapter  of  dral  chapter 
canons,  each  of  whom  by  this  time  had  a  prebend 
or  regular  income  for  his  support.  They  occupied  the  chief 
seats  in  the  choir  stalls:  first  came  the  dean,  then  the  chanter 
in  charge  of  the  singing,  then  the  archdeacons  who  aided  the 
bishop  in  visiting  his  diocese  and  holding  his  ecclesiastical 
courts,  then  the  theologian  or  interpreter  of  Scripture,  the 
schoolmaster  of  the  cathedral  school,  the  penitentiary,  the 
treasurer,  and  the  chamberlain.  Other  churches  which  were 
large  enough  to  require  a  number  of  clergy  or  canons  to 
administer  their  affairs,  but  which  were  not  the  seats  of 
bishops,  were  known  as  "  collegiate"  instead  of  "  cathedral" 
churches. 

Finally  we  come  to  the  simple  parish  church  and  priest. 
The  parish  was  the  smallest  local  ecclesiastical  territorial 
unit.  The  priest,  although  nominated  by  some  parish 
lay  or  ecclesiastical  patron  of  the  parish  church,  P"ests 
must  be  approved  and  ordained  by  his  bishop,  who  was  also 
supposed  to  visit  and  superintend  the  activities  of  all  the 
priests  within  his  diocese.   So  much  of  the  tithes  which  the 


438        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

people  of  the  parish  had  to  pay  the  Church  and  of  its  other 
revenues  went  to  persons  or  institutions  "higher  up,"  that 
the  parish  priest  was  generally  poorly  paid  and  hence  was 
often  a  man  of  little  ability.  The  priesthood  also  suffered 
from  lack  of  episcopal  supervision  when  bishops  neglected 
their  religious  functions  for  other  interests.  There  were, 
however,  archpriests  or  rural  deans,  clergymen  with  the 
oversight  of  a  few  other  parishes  than  their  own  in  much 
the  same  way  that  the  archbishop  was  related  to  his 
bishops. 

Under  Innocent  we  become  aware  of  an  increasing  ten- 
dency of  the  local  clergy  and  churches  to  refer  everything 
Papal  rela-  ^°  ^^^  pope  for  decision.  Innocent  was  an 
tions  with  administrator  of  great  industry  and  capacity 
for  detail,  and  he  did  not  object  when  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  and  abbots  from  all  parts  of  Latin  Chris- 
tendom referred  to  him  for  decision  even  quite  petty  mat- 
ters of  local  organization  or  problems  in  theology  or  ecclesi- 
astical discipline  which  they  should  have  been  able  to  settle 
satisfactorily  themselves  by  the  exercise  of  a  little  common 
sense.  For  instance,  in  1198  we  find  him  permitting  the 
division  of  a  parish  in  the  Bishopric  of  Laon  in  northern 
France.  However,  in  many  cases  the  pope's  interference  was 
necessary  in  order  to  preserve  the  peace  between  two  con- 
tending local  parties.  The  lesser  clergy  were  often  at  odds 
with  their  bishops,  and  the  clergy  often  had  to  appeal  to 
the  pope  for  protection  against  the  feudal  lords.  Sometimes 
the  reverse  was  the  case,  and  in  1198  we  find  the  Count  of 
Auvergne  asking  Innocent's  help  against  his  brother,  the 
Bishop  of  Clermont.  Innocent  also  had  to  warn  the  bishops 
in  Champagne  to  be  a  little  less  forward  in  heaping  anath- 
emas and  interdicts  upon  the  counts  of  that  region  for 
every  trifling  thing  that  they  did.  Taken  all  in  all  a  vast 
business  was  dispatched  at  the  papal  court,  and  even 
Innocent  at  times  complained  that  the  burden  of  business 
left  him  no  time  for  meditation  or  for  the  composition  of 
religious  works. 

While  the  medieval  Church  recognized  the  great  impor- 


THE   CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         439 

tance  of  having  well-educated  men  of  pure  life  and  attractive 
personality  in  its  priesthood,  it  regarded  neither  sacramental 
preaching  ability  nor  executive  capacity  nor  power  of  the 
moral  conduct  as  the  essential  thing  for  one  en- 
trusted with  the  care  of  souls.  The  essential  was  divine 
grace  and  power,  and  this  the  priest  was  believed  to  receive 
when  he  was  ordained  by  the  bishop.  Henceforth,  regard- 
less of  his  natural  capacity  or  incapacity,  he  possessed  "an 
indelible  character"  and  could  perform  the  sacraments  upon 
which  the  obtaining  of  divine  grace  by  his  parishioners 
depended. 

The  Church  held  that  man  could  not  save  his  soul  by  his 
own  efforts ;  that  he  must  also  receive  divine  grace  through 
partaking  of  the  sacraments.  In  the  Sentences  of  The  seven 
Peter  Lombard,  written  in  the  twelfth  century,  sacraments 
we  find  the  number  of  sacraments  stated  as  seven,  itself  a 
sacred  number.  Two  could  be  performed  only  by  the 
bishop:  namely,  the  ordination  of  priests,  already  mentioned, 
and  the  confirmation  of  children  in  their  membership  in  the 
Church  when  they  become  old  enough  to  distinguish  good 
and  evil.  Of  the  five  which  an  ordinary  priest  could  per- 
form, three,  like  the  two  already  described,  applied  to  some 
important  epoch  in  life  and  would  normally  be  received  but 
once  by  a  given  person;  namely,  baptism  into  the  Church 
as  soon  as  feasible  after  birth,  the  marriage  ceremony  which 
in  the  Middle  Ages  could  be  performed  only  by  the  clergy, 
and  extreme  unction  just  before  death.  The  two  remaining 
sacraments  of  the  mass  and  penance  were  often  repeated  — 
indeed,  the  oftener  the*  better. 

The  mass  was  the  central  feature  of  the  church  service. 
Often  the  only  preaching  was  done  by  the  bishop  when  he 
paid  a  visit.  By  the  saying  of  mass  the  priest 
was  believed  to  perform  a  great  miracle  known 
as  "transubstantiation,"  by  which  the  bread  and  wine  were 
changed  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  and  his  memor- 
able sacrifice  of  himself  on  the  cross  for  sinful  humanity 
was  renewed  and  perpetuated  for  the  benefit  of  those 
present  and  partaking  of  the  host  or  consecrated  bread.   It 


440        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

became  the  custom  for  the  clergy  alone  to  drink  the  wine 
for  fear  lest  some  drops  of  the  precious  blood  might  be  spilt 
in  passing  the  cup  about  among  the  rude  laity.  It  was  ex- 
plained to  them  that  the  bread  or  body  contained  full  virtue. 
Indeed,  the  mere  celebration  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  by 
the  priest  was  beneficial  and  the  people  only  occasionally 
actually  received  the  communion.  Moreover,  masses  might 
be  said  for  the  soul  of  an  absent  or  dead  person.  In  fact 
there  was  so  great  a  demand  and  so  much  money  left  for  the 
repetition  of  masses  for  such  purposes  that  some  priests  had 
no  parishes  under  their  care,  but  devoted  their  entire  time  to 
chanting  private  masses  and  so  were  called  "chantry  priests." 
The  Fourth  Lateran  Council  ordered  Christians  to  con- 
fess their  sins  to  the  priest  at  least  once  a  year.  In  the  early 
Christian  communities  sinners  had  perhaps  con- 
fessed  publicly  before  the  congregation,  but  ere 
long  the  custom  had  grown  up  of  auricular  confession  in 
private  confidence  to  the  priest.  Such  confession  and  the 
penitent  frame  of  mind  which  it  implied  were  the  first  essen- 
tials in  the  sacrament  of  penance.  Next,  the  priest,  to  whom 
through  Peter  and  his  apostolic  successors  were  supposed  to 
have  come  the  keys  of  heaven  and  the  power  to  forgive  sins, 
absolved  the  sinner  from  his  guilt.  There  still  remained, 
however,  a  penalty  to  be  paid  and  which  would  have  to  be 
worked  off  after  death  in  purgatory,  unless  the  offender 
performed  some  act  of  penance  imposed  upon  him  by  the 
priest.  The  Penitentials,  or  books  informing  the  priest  as  to 
the  proper  penances  for  various  sins,  have  already  been 
mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter. 

At  the  time  of  the  First  Crusade,  Urban  II  decreed  that 
*'if  any  one,  through  devotion  alone  and  not  for  the  sake  of 
honor  or  gain,  goes  to  Jerusalem  to  free  the 
Church  of  God,  the  journey  Itself  shall  take  the 
place  of  all  penance."  Sometimes,  moreover,  the  contrite 
sinner  was  permitted  to  give  alms  to  the  poor  or  to  make  a 
contribution  to  the  Church  Instead  of  performing  the  usual 
penance.  Especially  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  the  pope 
would  every  now  and  then  proclaim  a  general  Indulgence, 


THE   CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI  441 

by  which  penitent  persons  were  offered  complete  remission 
of  all  their  past  sins  upon  unusually  easy  and  attractive 
terms  which  reduced  to  a  minimum  the  amount  of  penance 
that  they  would  have  to  undergo  both  now  and  in  purga- 
tory. In  return  for  such  indulgences  or  pardons  the  people 
were  required  to  contribute  generously  of  their  means  to 
the  support  of  the  Church.  Thus  it  became  a  temptation 
for  the  Papacy  to  arrange  for  the  preaching  of  indulgences 
whenever  it  needed  money,  while  the  people  were  liable  to 
conclude  that  indulgences  and  money  contributions  were 
the  surest  road  to  salvation.  Yet,  strictly  speaking,  the 
indulgence  freed  them  only  from  immediate  penance  and 
the  pains  of  purgatory,  since  by  ordinary  confession  to  their 
priests  they  could  at  any  time  secure  forgiveness  of  their 
sins  and  divine  pardon  of  their  guilt,  leaving  only  the  pen- 
alty to  be  worked  off  either  here  or  in  purgatory. 

These  seven  sacraments  meant  everything  to  medieval 
men.  Most  of  them  never  questioned  but  that  water  could 
be  made  holy,  that  there  were  sacred  places  Excom- 
which  it  did  one  good  to  visit  as  a  pilgrim,  that  ^nTinter°" 
bones  of  dead  saints  had  wondrous  virtues,  and  diet 
that  living  priests  could  perform  such  miracles  as  the  mass. 
In  their  control  of  these  sacraments  the  clergy  had  a  tre- 
mendous weapon  to  use  against  the  laity.  By  excommuni- 
cation they  cut  off  an  individual  from  receiving  the  sacra- 
ments, besides,  perhaps,  launching  additional  curses  and 
anathemas  against  him.  By  an  interdict  the  clergy  were 
ordered  to  cease  the  celebration  of  some  or  all  of  the  sacra- 
ments in  a  given  locality.  Thus,  if  a  refractory  lord  paid 
no  attention  to  his  own  excommunication,  his  people  might 
be  aroused  against  him  by  laying  an  interdict  upon  his  terri- 
tories. There  was  one  amusing  case  where,  as  soon  as  a  cer- 
tain feudal  noble  entered  the  chief  town  on  his  domain,  the 
church  bell  was  rung  and  all  religious  services  and  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacraments  forthwith  ceased,  to  be  resumed 
only  when  the  bell  again  announced  his  departure.  Natu- 
rally the  people  soon  began  to  murmur  and  he  found  it 
advisable  to  make  his  visits  to  town  brief. 


442        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Such  measures  were  effective  so  long  as  the  people  be- 
lieved in  the  sacramental  power  of  the  priesthood.  But 
The  spread  what  could  be  done  if  an  entire  region  lost  faith 
of  heresy  [^  ^j^g  Church,  its  clcrgy,  and  its  ceremonies? 
Such  was  threatening  to  become  the  situation  in  southern 
France  when  Innocent  became  pope.  With  the  rise  of  towns, 
travel,  and  trade,  and  the  reception  of  new  ideas  in  science 
and  philosophy,  there  had  come  in  also  through  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries  strange  religious  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices. Often  they  spread  by  the  same  routes  as  trade.  The 
leading  heresy  of  this  period  —  that  of  the  Cathari  or 
Patarins  or  Albigensians,  as  they  finally  came  to  be  called 
from  the  town  of  Albi  in  southern  France  where  they  were 
especially  prominent  —  spread  from  the  East  across  the 
Balkans  to  the  Adriatic,  and  then  across  Lombardy  to 
Provence  and  Languedoc.  Here  they  flourished  most,  but 
they  were  also  frequently  heard  of  here  and  there  in  Ger- 
many, Flanders,  Brittany,  and  other  parts  of  northern 
France. 

The  Cathari  or  "The  Pure,"  as  they  called  themselves, 
were  a  revival  of  the  sect  of  Manichseans  of  Augustine's  day. 
The  Cathari  They  regarded  themselves  as  Christians,  how- 
or  Albigen-  ever,  but  accepted  only  the  New  Testament  as 
^'^"^  their  Bible.    What  we  know  of  them  is  derived 

almost  wholly  from  their  enemies,  so  that  the  following 
brief  summary  of  their  beliefs  and  rites  may  not  do  them 
justice.  It  is  hard  to  account  for  the  existence  of  evil  in  the 
world,  if  we  believe  in  but  one  good  God.  The  Cathari, 
therefore,  held  that  two  forces  forever  contend  in  the  world, 
one  a  good,  the  other  an  evil,  deity.  Everything  material 
and  physical  and  sensual  they  regarded  as  evil.  This  world, 
in  short,  with  its  crimes  and  lusts  and  diseases  and  wars  and 
worldly  bishops  and  robber  barons,  is  evil.  Christ  was  not 
a  man  born  of  a  woman,  but  a  pure  spirit  sent  to  introduce 
the  new  gospel  of  an  "invisible,  spiritual,  and  eternal  uni- 
verse." The  pope  and  clergy  of  the  Roman  Church  are  not 
representatives  of  Christ,  but  servants  of  the  evil  spirit,  for 
they  do  not  renounce  the  things  of  this  world  as  they  should. 


THE   CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         443 

Instead  of  following  them,  one  should  turn  for  salvation  to 
the  "Perfected"  of  the  Catharl,  who  have  been  ordained  by 
laylng-on  of  hands  and  have  promised  never  to  He  or  swear, 
or  eat  meat,  cheese,  and  eggs.  Instead  of  the  elaborate 
mass,  the  Catharl  had  the  simple  blessing  of  bread  per- 
formed dally  at  table.  The  Perfected  were  looked  upon  as 
very  holy  men  by  the  common  people,  who  did  not  usually 
receive  the  consolamentum,  or  laying-on  of  hands,  until  just 
before  death.  The  Catharl  were  not  afraid  to  die  for  their 
faith,  —  the  orthodox  whispered  that  suicide  was  frequent 
among  the  heretics,  —  and  it  has  been  said  that  "if  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  were  really  the  seed  of  the  Church, 
Manichaeism  would  now  be  the  dominant  religion  of 
Europe." 

Another  prominent  heretical  sect  in  southern  France 
were  the  Waldensians,  some  of  whom  still  survive.  They 
were  followers  of  Peter  Waldo,  a  rich  merchant  The  Wal- 
of  Lyons  who  abandoned  his  business  to  lead  a  densians 
life  of  apostolic  poverty  and  who  went  about  preaching  to 
the  people.  At  first  sight  there  may  seem  to  be  nothing 
heretical  in  this,  but  Waldo  was  not  an  ordained  priest. 
When  his  disciples  began  to  criticize  the  lives  of  the  bishops 
and  priests  who  did  not  adopt  a  life  of  poverty,  and  to  say 
that  laymen  and  women  could  preach,  and  that  a  prayer  to 
God  made  in  a  barn  was  as  likely  to  be  heard  as  one  made 
in  a  cathedral,  and  that  the  masses  said  for  the  dead  did 
them  no  good,  and  when  they  began  to  refuse  to  pay  tithes, 
the  Church  began  to  condemn  them  as  heretics.  Such  per- 
secution only  led  them  to  oppose  the  clergy  the  more,  and 
some  of  them  were  well  on  the  road  to  the  views  of  the  later 
Protestants,  while  others  adopted  some  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Catharl. 

In  most  parts  of  Europe  the  people  themselves  would 
hound  down  a  heretic  as  readily  as  mobs  in  some  parts  of 
this  country  will  lynch  a  negro  who  assaults  a  Medieval 
white  woman.  The  people  were  afraid  that  their  to^ard^ 
crops  would  fail,  or  that  a  pestilence  would  be  heresy 
sent  upon  them  by  divine  wrath,  if  they  tolerated  heretics 


444        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

in  their  midst  or  even  let  their  bones  rest  in  consecrated 
ground.  The  practice  of  burning  heretics  at  the  stake  grew 
up  spontaneously  and  was  not  introduced  by  the  Inquisition. 
The  clergy,  however,  had  taught  the  people  to  hate  heresy, 
and  we  must  remember  that  the  most  learned  and  the  most 
saintly  men  of  medieval  times  alike  approved  of  the  perse- 
cution of  heretics. 

But  in  southern  France  conditions  were  different.  There 
society  was  worldly  and  tolerant,  and  the  troubadours, 
^     ,.,.  feudal  nobles,   and   municipalities   cared   little 

Conditions  "^ 

in  southern     for  the   Church.    The   clergy  were  worldly  and 
^^^^^  neglected   to  give  the   people  proper  religious 

instruction,  and  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  take  any  ener- 
getic action  against  heresy.  Even  if  they  did,  they  could 
find  no  support  in  the  lords  of  the  land  or  the  ruling  bodies 
in  the  towns.  Raymond  VI,  Count  of  Toulouse,  the  greatest 
feudal  lord  of  the  region,  was  a  friend  of  the  heretics  and 
was  strongly  suspected  of  being  one  himself.  The  heretics 
preached  publicly  in  town  squares  and  at  feudal  courts  and 
gained  numerous  adherents,  so  that  Innocent  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  some  archbishoprics  of  southern  France 
there  were  more  Manichseans  than  Christians. 

Innocent  often  said  that  he  preferred  that  the  heretics 
should  be  converted  rather  than  exterminated,  and  that 
^t     A,t  •        they  should  be  won  back  by  preaching  rather 

The  Albi-  -^  -r^      •  i       r  r  i  • 

gensian  than  by  force.    Durmg  the  hrst  ten  years  oi  his 

crusade  pontificate  he  sent  a  succession  of  legates  to 

southern  France,  but  with  little  result.  He  also,  however,  as 
early  as  1204  appealed  to  Philip  Augustus,  the  King  of 
France,  for  aid,  but  the  latter  was  too  occupied  with  his 
struggle  with  King  John  of  England.  Finally,  in  1207,  Count 
Raymond  was  excommunicated.  He  submitted,  promising 
to  do  as  the  papal  legates  wished,  and  received  absolution. 
But  Innocent  went  ahead  and  in  November  offered  the 
feudal  lords  of  central  and  northern  France  the  same  remis- 
sion of  sins  as  for  crusaders  to  the  East,  if  they  would  take 
part  for  forty  days  in  an  expedition  to  crush  heresy  in 
southern  France.    Just  at  this  juncture,  in  January,  1208, 


THE   CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         445 

one  of  the  papal  legates  was  assassinated  by  an  official  of 
the  Count  of  Toulouse.  This  murder  aroused  a  storm  of 
indignation;  the  clergy  preached  the  new  type  of  crusade 
with  great  vigor;  and  soon  a  large  army  was  on  its  way 
south.  Raymond  made  no  attempt  at  resistance,  but,  pro- 
testing his  innocence  of  the  murder  of  the  legate,  joined  the 
army  of  crusaders.  Thus,  deprived  of  its  natural  leader, 
Toulouse  made  no  united  opposition.  The  crusading  army 
occupied  itself  chiefly  in  storming  Beziers,  where  thousands 
of  men,  women,  and  children  were  massacred,  and  in  forcing 
Carcassonne  to  capitulate,  whereupon  its  inhabitants  were 
allowed  to  depart  with  but  a  single  garment  each. 

Most  of  the  original  crusaders  then  went  home.  Beziers 
and  Carcassonne  were  given  as  a  fief  to  Simon  de  Montfort, 
who  proceeded,  with  the  aid  of  hired  troops  and  of  new  cru- 
saders who  kept  arriving,  to  enlarge  his  fief  further  at  the 
expense  of  Raymond  and  other  southern  lords.  Raymond 
was  unable  to  make  his  peace  with  the  Church,  although  he 
went  to  Rome  to  see  Innocent.  The  King  of  Aragon,  who 
was  Raymond's  brother-in-law,  and  who  did  not  like  to  see 
the  barons  of  the  north  despoiling  his  neighbors  of  their 
fiefs,  tried  to  interfere,  at  first  as  a  peacemaker  and  then 
with  an  army,  but  he  was  defeated  and  slain  in  battle  by 
De  Montfort.  The  latter  in  his  turn  perished  while  besieg- 
ing the  city  of  Toulouse.  This  was  after  the  death  of  Inno- 
cent, for  the  war  in  Languedoc  went  on  until  1229.  A  second 
crusade  was  led  by  Prince  Louis  of  France,  who  came  again 
as  King  Louis  VIII  in  1224.  Meanwhile  Raymond  VI  had 
died  and  his  son,  Raymond  VII,  finally  made  his  peace  with 
the  Church  and  also  with  the  King  of  France,  now  Louis 
IX,  to  whose  brother  he  agreed  to  marry  his  daughter  and 
leave  his  lands. 

Innocent  had  less  difficulty  with  the  Bogomiles  of  Bosnia 
and  Dalm^atia  than  with  their  fellow  heretics  in  Toulouse. 
When  he  Induced  the  King  of  Hungary  to  declare  war  upon 
the  Ban  of  Bosnia,  the  latter  potentate  quickly  submitted 
and  asked  that  a  papal  legate  be  sent  to  receive  the  Bogo- 
mile  leaders  back  into  the  Roman  Church. 


446        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Raymond  VII  of  Toulouse  in  1229  agreed  to  support 
the  Church  with  all  his  might  in  the  suppression  of  heresy, 
rpj^g  He  would  punish  the  heretics  if  the  Church 

medieval  would  point  them  out.  Cases  of  heresy  had 
inquisi  ion  hf^herto  been  dealt  with  by  the  local  court  of  the 
bishop,  but  now  the  pope  took  the  detection  of  heretics 
under  his  charge  and  appointed  special  officials  —  known 
as  "inquisitors,"  from  the  Latin  word  for  an  investigation 
or  inquiry  —  to  visit  places  infested  with  heresy.  The  com- 
ing of  the  inquisitor  was  announced  in  advance  and  the 
people  were  encouraged  to  assemble  at  a  specified  time  by 
the  promise  of  an  indulgence.  To  this  assembled  multitude 
the  inquisitor  preached,  urging  them  to  give  him  all  possible 
information  and  assistance  against  the  heretics  in  the  local- 
ity, or  to  confess  and  repent  of  their  error  if  they  were 
tainted  with  heresy  themselves.  A  period  of  grace,  usually 
a  month,  was  allowed  during  which  any  heretic  who  acknowl- 
edged his  guilt  and  promised  reformation  and  told  the 
inquisitor  what  he  could  about  his  fellow  heretics  was 
absolved  with  some  light  penance. 

When  the  period  of  grace  was  over,  the  inquisitor  pro- 
ceeded to  the  trials  of  those  against  whom  he  had  gathered 
evidence  and  who  had  not  already  confessed.  The  accused 
usually  had  neither  lawyer  nor  witnesses  to  speak  for  him, 
since  others  did  not  wish  to  or  did  not  dare  to  defend  a  prob- 
able heretic,  lest  they  too  be  suspected.  A  notary  was  pres- 
ent to  record  the  proceedings  and  two  impartial  men  to  see 
fair  play,  but  they  were  sworn  to  secrecy  unless  some  abuse 
occurred  in  the  conduct  of  the  trial.  Until  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  inquisitor  did  not  have  to  let  the 
accused  know  what  evidence  he  had  against  him  or  who 
had  given  it,  but  Pope  Boniface  VIII  decreed  that  the 
names  of  the  witnesses  against  him  must  be  revealed  to  the 
accused,  although  he  still  was  not  allowed  to  call  them 
in  and  cross-examine  them.  The  procedure,  therefore,  re- 
solved itself  mainly  into  a  questioning  of  the  accused  by  the 
inquisitor  in  order  to  determine  if  he  really  were  a  heretic. 
If  he  refused  to  answer  or  made  statements  that  the  inquis- 


THE  CHURCH   UNDER  INNOCENT   HI         447 

itor  believed  to  be  false,  torture  was  employed  to  force  the 
truth  from  him.  He  was  then  brought  back  into  the  court- 
room and  asked  to  sign,  as  a  freely  made  confession,  the 
words  which  had  been  wrung  from  him  on  the  rack.  But  if 
he  refused  to  sign,  he  often  was  put  to  the  torture  again. 
Even  witnesses  who  were  not  themselves  on  trial  were  some- 
times tortured.  Ordinarily  in  cases  in  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  the  testimony  of  criminals,  heretics,  and  excommuni- 
cated persons  was  not  admitted ;  but  the  inquisition  accepted 
such  evidence  and  also  that  of  young  children.  Assertions 
against  the  accused  made  by  a  deadly  enemy  were  not, 
however,  given  credence. 

The  penalties  varied  according  as  the  accused  was  an 
offender  for  the  first  time  or  a  relapsed  heretic,  according 
to  the  magnitude  of  the  offense,  and  according  to  whether 
his  guilt  seemed  proved  beyond  question  or  still  remained 
open  to  some  doubt.  The  extreme  penalties  were  life  im- 
prisonment on  bread  and  water,  and  death,  generally  by 
burning  at  the  stake.  In  the  latter  case  the  State  inflicted 
the  punishment  and  the  heretic  after  his  conviction  by  the 
inquisition,  which  in  this  case  had  to  be  approved  by  the 
bishop  of  his  diocese,  was  handed  over  to  "the  secular  arm" 
for  the  punishment  decreed  by  its  laws  against  heretics. 

The  inquisition  must  be  estimated  in  the  light  of  those 
times,  when  it  was  common  to  punish  criminals  with  great 
cruelty  and  when  torture  was  often  used  in  secular  tribu- 
nals. It  was  better  to  convict  men  on  the  basis  of  evidence, 
even  if  this  was  somewhat  unfairly  used  against  them,  than 
to  determine  their  guilt  or  innocence  by  recourse  to  ordeals, 
as  had  sometimes  been  done  before  even  in  the  case  of  per- 
sons suspected  of  heresy.  The  use  of  ordeals  by  the  clergy 
was  forbidden  by  Innocent  in  12 15.  But  to  say  that  there 
were  other  courts  as  bad  as  the  inquisition  is  no  sufficient 
justification  of  it.  The  Church  had  constantly  proclaimed 
its  superiority  to  the  State  and  must  live  up  to  its  claim. 
Hitherto  the  ecclesiastical  courts  had  been  distinguished  by 
their  leniency  and  equity.  Now  the  Church  of  the  Prince 
of  Peace  and  Love  was  basing  its  power  upon  brute  force 


448        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  killing  those  whom  it  could  not  convince.  For  the  time 
being  this  harsh  policy  had  an  apparent  success ;  the  Cathari 
soon  disappeared  forever  and  the  Waldensians  ceased  to  be 
at  all  dangerous.  Innocent  did  not  establish  the  papal  inqui- 
sition, although  he  took  a  step  or  two  in  its  direction.  But 
by  the  cruel  crusade  which  he  turned  upon  a  Christian  land 
he  started  the  policy  of  forcible  extermination  of  heresy  of 
which  the  inquisition  was  the  logical  outcome. 

The  inquisitors  did  not  visit  all  the  lands  of  Latin  Chris- 
tendom. Scandinavian  countries  were  entirely  free  from 
them  and  they  appeared  in  England  on  only  one  occasion. 
In  the  Spanish  peninsula  they  were  limited  to  Aragon  until 
the  notorious  Spanish  Inquisition  began  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  In  the  Low  Countries  we  hear  of  them 
only  in  Flanders  and  Brabant. 

The  men  chosen  by  the  popes  to  act  as  inquisitors  were 
the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  friars.  The  founders  of  these 
,  two  new  religious  orders,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 

in  central  Italy  and  St.  Dominic,  a  prior  of  Osma 
in  north  central  Spain,  had  already  begun  their  work  in  the 
pontificate  of  Innocent,  although  their  orders  were  not  com- 
pletely established  and  did  not  spread  over  Europe  until 
after  his  death.  Many  legends  grew  up  about  both  these 
saints  and  have  been  preserved  in  paintings  as  well  as  in 
literature.  About  Dominic  we  know  little  with  certainty; 
concerning  Francis  we  are  better  informed  by  contempora- 
ries. 

St.  Francis  has  always  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  characters  in  the  Middle  Ages.  As  a  boy  he  had 
St.  Francis  plenty  of  money  to  spend  and  led  a  gay  life  of 
of  Assisi  pleasure,  until  a  serious  illness  wrought  a  great 
change  in  him  just  about  the  time  that  he  was  coming  of 
age.  The  life  of  the  apostles,  whom  Christ  sent  out  to  preach 
the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  telling  them  not  to 
take  money,  food,  or  extra  clothing  with  them  —  this  ideal 
of  apostolic  poverty  came  to  appeal  to  Francis  as  it  had 
done  to  so  many  others  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  put  it  into  practice.    His  angry  father,  when  he 


THE  CHURCH  UNDER  INNOCENT  HI    449 

disinherited  him,  only  aided  him  in  accomplishing  his  pur- 
pose. Francis  would  not  keep  even  the  clothes  on  his  back, 
but  entered  upon  his  new  life  in  a  discarded  and  worthless 
garment.  He  had  a  hard  time  of  it  at  first.  He  was  hooted 
at  and  pelted  with  missiles  in  the  city  streets,  and  when  he 
wandered  outside  the  walls  he  met  some  robbers.  When  he 
informed  them  that  he  was  "the  herald  of  a  great  king," 
they  stripped  him  naked  and  threw  him  into  a  snowdrift. 
But  even  this  treatment  failed  to  cool  his  religious  ardor. 
He  repaired  some  ruined  chapels  in  the  neighborhood, 
tended  the  loathsome  lepers,  and  preached  in  the  simplest 
style  to  any  one  who  would  listen  to  him,  —  even,  we  are 
told,  to  the  birds  who  were  not  afraid  as  he  walked  among 
them  and  reminded  them  how  thankful  they  should  be  to 
God  their  creator. 

Francis  was  as  cheerful  in  his  rags  as  he  had  been  in  the 
luxury  of  his  father's  house;  a  new  inspiration  had  come  to 
him  and  he  was  full  of  love  for  all  mankind  and  even  for 
forces  in  nature  such  as  "brother  fire";  finally,  despite  his 
bare  feet  and  patched  garment,  he  remained  a  true  gentle- 
man. He  threw  away  all  the  outward  trappings  of  civiliza- 
tion, abandoning  learning  as  well  as  property,  and  cleanli- 
ness as  well  as  clothes;  but  he  did  it  in  order  to  get  back  to 
nature,  to  touch  our  common  humanity,  and  to  see  God. 
What  the  modern  city  dweller  tries  to  get  by  "roughing  it" 
in  the  woods  in  the  summer,  what  other  men  in  the  Middle 
Ages  had  sought  to  find  by  secluding  themselves  in  monas- 
teries, Francis  sought  by  going  into  the  world  about  him. 
Sometimes  the  ambitious  youth  of  to-day,  in  order  to  learn 
more  thoroughly  the  business  in  which  he  proposes  to  en- 
gage, "begins  at  the  bottom"  in  foundry  or  factory  or 
freight  train.  Francis  began  at  the  bottom  in  order  to  learn 
God's  business.  The  men  of  his  age  appreciated  his  worth 
and  he  was  made  a  saint  two  years  after  his  death,  whereas 
Dominic  had  to  wait  thirteen  years,  and  the  great  pope. 
Innocent,  has  not  been  canonized  yet. 

Such  a  personality  soon  drew  followers,  and  they  went 
forth  from  Assisi  two  by  two  to  spread  the  gospel.    Some- 


450        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

times  they  simply  called  themselves  "Penitents,"  sometimes 
The  Order  by  the  gladder  name  of  "God's  troubadours." 
cansror'^'^  At  first  they  were  simple  laymen  and  might 
Minorites  have  developed  into  heretics  like  the  followers  of 
Peter  Waldo.  But  in  12 lo  Francis  met  Innocent  and  ob- 
tained his  oral  approbation,  although  the  new  order  was  not 
formally  established  until  several  years  after  Innocent's 
death.  By  12 19,  however,  they  had  begun  to  spread  outside 
Italy  and  were  soon  found  in  Spain,  France,  England,  Ger- 
many, and  Hungary.  They  were  now  called  "Minorites" 
or  "the  lowly"  because  of  their  humility.  They  also  have 
often  been  called  "Mendicant  Friars"  or  "Begging  Broth- 
ers," because  they  had  no  property  of  their  own  and  had  to 
depend  for  food  and  lodging  upon  those  to  whom  they 
preached  and  rendered  other  services.  As  their  work  was 
largely  with  the  lepers  and  sick  and  poor  and  needy,  they 
often  had  to  beg  their  bread  from  other  persons.  But  they 
were  not  allowed  by  Francis  to  receive  any  money,  and  were 
supposed  to  earn  their  living  when  they  could.  Francis  died 
in  1226  after  two  or  three  unsuccessful  attempts  to  go  as  a 
missionary  to  the  Saracens.  In  1212  a  girl  of  eighteen  named 
Clare  left  her  family  to  become  a  follower  of  Francis,  who 
thereupon  instituted  a  separate  order  for  women,  known  as 
the  "Second  Order  of  St.  Francis,"  or  the  "Franciscan 
Nuns,"  or  the  "Poor  Clares." 

The  youth  of  Dominic  had  been  that  of  a  student  and 
cleric.  Early  in  the  thirteenth  century  he  accompanied  his 
St.  Dominic  bishop  on  a  diplomatic  mission  for  the  King  of 
'■Friare^^^  Castile, and  they  also  visited  Rome.  In  passing 
Preachers"  through  Toulouse  on  their  way  north  and  again 
on  their  return,  they  were  shocked  by  the  prevalence  of 
heresy.  Dominic  determined  to  remain  there  and  devote 
himself  to  religious  work.  At  Prouille  he  founded  a  nunnery 
where  Albigensian  orphan  girls  might  be  reared  in  orthodoxy, 
and  he  supported  Simon  de  Montfort  in  his  bloody  work  of 
orphan-making.  Innocent  had  approved  a  new  order  called 
"Poor  Catholics,"  whose  leaders  were  converted  Walden- 
sians,  who  now  proposed  to  combat  heresy  in  southern 


THE  CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         451 

France  by  leading  the  life  of  poverty  themselves  and  by 
preaching  and  teaching,  by  argument  and  discussion.  They 
met  with  little  success,  however,  because  the  other  clergy 
were  suspicious  of  them  as  former  heretics.  Dominic  now 
took  up  this  idea  of  training  a  body  of  men  to  combat 
heresy  and  teach  the  people  the  true  faith.  This  order, 
known  as  the  "Friars  Preachers,"  was  confirmed  in  1216 
by  Innocent's  successor  and  by  the  time  of  Dominic's  death 
in  1 22 1  was  spreading  over  Europe. 

Although  the  temperaments  and  ideals  of  their  founders 
had  differed  considerably,  Francis  emphasizing  poverty  and 
social  service,  and  Dominic  stressing  orthodox  Services 
teaching  and  preaching,  the  two  orders  came  to  rendered  by 
be  much  alike  and  are  usually  spoken  of  together 
as  "Mendicant  Friars,"  although  there  has  generally  been 
a  certain  rivalry  between  them.  We  also  hear  of  "the  four 
fraternal  orders,"  the  other  two  being  the  Augustinians  and 
the  Carmelites.  The  friars  differed  from  the  monks  in  going 
into  the  world  and  serving  society  more.  They  rendered 
especial  service  in  the  slums  and  wretched  suburbs  outside 
the  walls  of  growing  towns,  where  there  often  were  not 
enough  parish  priests.  Even  if  there  were  enough  parish 
priests,  the  people  often  preferred  the  friars  who  seemed  to 
them  to  lead  a  holier  life,  who  were  so  sympathetic  and 
cheerful,  and  who  could  preach  so  much  better.  In  short, 
the  traveling  friars  remedied  the  defects  of  the  local  priest- 
hood and  met  the  new  demands  of  thirteenth-century 
society.  Although  Francis  had  forsaken  learning  along  with 
father,  family,  and  all  other  worldly  interests,  his  followers 
of  ten  specialized  in  theology,  or,  like  the  Dominicans,  taught 
at  universities.  The  ablest  and  most  learned  of  the  clergy 
were  now  apt  to  be  found  among  the  friars.  Albertus 
Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas  were  Dominicans;  Roger 
Bacon  and  William  of  Rubruk  were  Franciscans. 

At  the  head  of  either  order  was  one  man,  the  General, 
who  called  an  annual  assembly  of  the  heads  or  Their 
assessors  of  the  various  provinces  in  different  ^^^^•"^ 
parts  of  Europe.  As  the  new  orders  became  so  successful 


452        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  Influential  in  all  Western  Christian  lands,  the  popes 
freed  them  entirely  from  the  control  of  the  bishops  in  whose 
dioceses  they  might  live  and  work.  Such  of  them  as  had 
been  ordained  were  allowed  not  only  to  preach,  but  also  to 
perform  the  sacraments  anywhere,  which  of  course  meant  a 
further  diminution  in  the  influence  of  the  parish  priest. 
Although  the  individual  friars  had  vowed  to  lead  lives  of 
poverty,  both  organizations  were  soon  building  large 
churches  and  convents  and  receiving  large  gifts  which  the 
world  was  anxious  to  shower  upon  such  holy  men.  In  time 
this  too  great  wealth  and  popularity  had  an  injurious  effect. 
At  the  start  the  friars,  like  the  monks  of  Cluny,  represented 
a  reform  movement,  but  like  most  previous  monastic  orders, 
they  were  to  decline  in  the  course  of  time.  It  was  impossible 
to  keep  the  clergy  constantly  up  to  the  ideals  of  St.  Francis, 
when  the  Church  continued  to  exercise  so  much  worldly 
power  and  to  possess  so  much  of  this  world's  goods. 

In  1215,  toward  the  end  of  his  reign.  Innocent  held  at  the 
Lateran  in  Rome  a  great  church  council,  regarded  by  Roman 
Th  F  th  Catholics  as  the  most  important  in  the  Middle 
Lateran  Agcs.   Through  this  council  Innocent  attempted 

to  reform  various  evils  in  the  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem but  without  much  lasting  success,  although  some  sev- 
enty reformatory  decrees  were  promulgated.  This  Fourth 
Lateran,  or  Twelfth  (Ecumenical  Council,  was  notable  for 
the  numbers  present,  for  the  wide  territory  represented, 
showing  how  Latin  Christendom  had  expanded,  and  for  the 
supreme  control  exercised  by  Innocent  over  all  the  pro- 
ceedings. The  council  simply  agreed  to  what  he  proposed. 
The  first  eight  general  councils  of  the  whole  Christian 
Church  had  been  held  in  the  East,  and  the  pope  had  not 
exerted  much  control  over  their  deliberations  and  findings, 
although  their  decrees  are  accepted  by  the  Latin  Church. 
But  since  the  Eighth  Council  held  at  Constantinople  in  869, 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  had  recognized  only  those 
councils  which  popes  had  summoned  in  the  West.  All  four 
of  these  had  been  held  at  the  Lateran,  the  first  in  1123.  In 
12 15  there  were  present  over  four  hundred  bishops,  eight 


THE  CHURCH   UNDER   INNOCENT   HI         453 

hundred  abbots  and  priors,  besides  many  other  clergy  and 
the  ambassadors  of  secular  princes. 

Latin  Christendom  now  extended  from  the  distant  shores 
of  Greenland  and  Iceland  to  Cyprus,  Little  Armenia,  and 
the  coast  cities  of  Syria.  A  Serbian  prince  ruling  Extent  of 
in  Dalmatia,  Montenegro,  and  Herzegovina,  had  ^atin 

Christendom 

asked  Innocent  m  1198  to  send  a  legate  to  re-  under 
ceive  those  territories  into  the  Latin  Church.  ^""O'^^"*^  ^^^ 
A  year  or  so  later  negotiations  began  between  Inno- 
cent and  the  ruler  of  Bulgaria  and  Wallachia  which 
led  to  the  incorporation  of  that  country  into  the  Latin 
Church  and  to  the  coronation  of  its  ruler  as  king  by  the 
papal  legate.  The  participants  in  the  Fourth  Crusade  set  up 
a  Latin  empire  in  Constantinople  which  brought  the  rest  of 
the  Balkan  peninsula  and  Greece  at  least  nominally  under 
papal  control.  Hungary  and  most  of  Poland  and  the  Scan- 
dinavian peninsula  were  Roman  Catholic  lands.  Over  half 
the  Spanish  peninsula  was  already  Christian  territory  and 
the  victory  of  12 12  at  Navas  de  Tolosa  over  the  Almohades 
meant  that  Mohammedan  rule  would  soon  be  limited  to 
Granada. 


454        THE  MEDIEVAL  HISTORY  OF   EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Letters  of  Innocent  III. 
Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  208-14, 
selections  114-22. 

Summarize  the  contents  of  each  document  and  connect  each  with 
some  paragraph  of  the  above  chapter  if  possible. 

Source  Work  on  Varied  Topics. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  348-95, 
The  sacraments,  selections  135,  136,  137,  138,  152. 
The  clergy,  selections  140,  146,  147,  148,  149. 
Church  property,  selections  141,  142,  143. 
The  heretics,  selections  144,  150,  151,  153. 
St.  Francis,  selections  154,  155,  156. 

Summarize  and  combine  the  information  contained  in  the  selec- 
tions on  one  of  the  above  topics,  noting,  however,  which  statements 
represent  hostile  criticism  or  are  otherwise  apparently  biased. 

Coulton,  A  Medieval  Garner.  Contains  a  great  number  of  brief  selec- 
tions from  medieval  sources  illustrating  the  life  of  the  clergy  and  to  a 
less  extent  of  the  laity. 

Examples  of  the  Interdict. 

Translations  and  Reprintsof  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  IV,  no.  4, 

pp.  27-28  and  29-30. 
Ogg,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History,  pp.  382-83. 

Southern  France  and  the  Religious  Opposition. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  432-57. 

The  Medieval  Inquisition. 

»     Any  chapter  in  Lea,  History  of  the  Inquisition  in  the  Middle  Ages,  or  in 
Vacandard,  The  Inquisition. 

St.  Francis. 

Chesterton,  Varied  Types,  pp.  59-70. 

Brother  Leo's  Mirror  of  Perfection.    (Temple  Classics.) 

Henderson,  Historical  Documents,  "The  Rule  of  St.  Francis,"  pp.  344-49. 

Any  chapter  in  Sabatier,  Life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi. 

The  Friars. 

Jessopp,  The  Coming  of  the  Friars. 
Coulton,  From  St.  Francis  to  Dante  (2d  edition,  1907). 
Chapter  vi,  "  Cloister  Life." 
Chapter  ix,  "  Convent  Friendships." 
Chapter  xv,  "A  Bishop's  Conscience." 

The  Modern  Roman  Catholic  View. 

Look  up  an  article  in  the  Catholic  Encyclopedia  upon  some  one  of  the 
topics  discussed  in  this  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

INNOCENT    III   AND   THE   STATES   OF   EUROPE 

Innocent  aimed  to  be  supreme,  not  only  over  the  clergy, 
but  over  the  kings  and  feudal  lords  of  Europe.  "We  are 
established  by  God  above  peoples  and  realms"  Papal  over- 
was  one  of  his  favorite  utterances.  The  policy  ^o^dship 
of  making  the  monarchs  of  Europe  vassals  of  the  Papacy 
reached  thp  height  of  its  success  under  him.  During  his  first 
year  in  office  he  demanded  prompt  settlement  of  all  arrears 
of  tribute  owed  to  the  pope  from  these  fiefs.  As  his  pontifi- 
cate proceeded,  he  brought  yet  other  rulers  into  vassalage 
to  the  Holy  See,  or  humbled  them  in  one  way  or  another. 
"The  Duke  of  Bohemia  was  rebuked,  the  King  of  Denmark 
comforted,  the  nobles  of  Iceland  warned,  the  King  of  Hun- 
gary admonished.  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  even  remote  Armenia, 
received  papal  supervision  and  paternal  care."  Innocent 
interfered  to  settle  disputed  successions  to  thrones  or  quar- 
rels in  royal  families,  to  stop  wars  and  to  induce  rulers  to 
join  the  crusade. 

What  Innocent  intended  the  feudal  relationships  of  these 
kings  to  himself  to  be  may  be  inferred  from  two  oaths  of 
fealty  taken  by  Peter  II  of  Aragon,  who  came  Oaths  of 
to  Rome  to  receive  his  crown  at  the  Pope's  own  by  Peter^T 
hand.  At  the  coronation  ceremony  the  king  took  of  Aragon 
the  following  oath:  "I,  Peter,  King  of  Aragon,  confess  and 
swear  that  I  will  ever  be  the  obedient  vassal  of  my  Lord, 
Pope  Innocent,  and  his  Catholic  successors,  and  of  the 
Roman  Church.    I  will  faithfully  keep  my  realm  in  his  obe- 
dience, will  defend  the  Catholic  Faith,  and  will  persecute 
heresy.    I  will  respect  the  liberties  and  immunities  of  the 
Church,  and  will  make  others  observe  its  rights.  I  will  strive 
to  establish  peace  and  justice  in  all  the  territory  subject  to 
my  control.    I  swear  it  by  God's  name  and  on  these  holy 
Gospels."    Pope   and   king  then  visited   the    basilica   of 


456        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

St.  Peter  where  the  king  placed  his  scepter  and  diadem  on 
the  Apostle's  tomb  with  these  words:  "I  confess  from  the 
heart  and  with  my  mouth  that  the  Roman  pontiff,  successor 
to  St.  Peter,  takes  the  place  of  Him  who  governs  earthly 
realms,  and  can  confer  them  upon  whom  it  seems  good  to 
him.  I,  Peter,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  Aragon,  Count 
of  Barcelona,  and  Lord  of  Montpellier,  desiring  above  all 
else  the  protection  of  God,  of  the  Apostle,  and  of  the  Holy 
See,  declare  that  I  offer  my  kingdom  to  thee,  admirable 
father  and  lord,  sovereign  pontiff  Innocent,  and  to  thy 
successors,  and  through  thee  to  the  most  sacred  Church  of 
Rome.  And  I  make  my  kingdom  tributary  to  Rome  at  the 
rate  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  gold  pieces  which  my  treasury 
shall  pay  every  year  to  the  Apostolic  See.  And  I  swear  for 
myself  and  my  successors  that  we  will  remain  thy  faithful 
vassals  and  obedient  subjects." 

On  the  other  hand,  Innocent  opposed  most  strenuously 
any  attempt  of  the  State  to  seize  church  property  or  of 

Insistence  on  ^ingS  tO  COntrol  CCclcsiastical  elections.  He  in- 
ecclesiastical  structed  a  Hungarian  archbishop,  when  reading 
^  ^^  y  to  the  people  the  legendary  life  of  St.  Stephen, 

the  first  Christian  king  of  Hungary,  to  suppress  a  passage 
which  spoke  of  the  religious  authority  conferred  upon  that 
monarch.  When  the  King  of  Portugal  drove  out  some  monks 
who  were  deep  both  in  crime  and  in  debt  and  replaced  them 
by  nuns  under  his  daughter  as  abbess.  Innocent  bade  the 
Archbishop  of  Compostella  restore  the  monks  in  order  to 
teach  the  king  that  ecclesiastical  liberty  must  not  "suffer 
from  the  insolence  of  laymen,"  but  then  to  oust  them  once 
more  and  allow  the  princess  to  start  a  nunnery  if  she  wished, 
in  order  that  "the  depravity  of  the  monks  might  not  go 
unpunished." 

Innocent's  relations  with  southern  France  and  with  the 
Count  of  Toulouse  have  already  been  mentioned  in  de- 
Relations  scribing  the  Albigensian  Crusade.  It  remains 
with  France  to  Speak  of  his  relations  with  the  two  royal 
houses,  Capetian  and  Plantagenet,  who  were 
now  engaged  in  continual  strife  with  each  other  and  who 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES  OF  EUROPE     457 

at  the  same  time  were  laying  the  foundations  of  the  French 
and  English  national  governments.  When  Innocent  be- 
came pope,  Richard  was  still  King  of  England  and  was 
defending  against  the  attacks  of  the  wily  Philip  Augustus 
of  France  the  vast  Plantagenet  possessions  upon  the  Con- 
tinent, which  he  had  inherited  from  his  father,  Henry  II  of 
England,  Anjou,  and  Normandy,  and  from  his  mother, 
Eleanor  of  Aquitaine.  Within  a  year  the  pope  had  induced 
these  two  monarchs  to  sign  a  five-year  truce.  But  straight- 
way Richard  died  and  his  brother  John,  who  succeeded  him, 
within  a  few  years  had  lost  Normandy,  Maine,  Anjou, 
Touraine,  and  Poitou  to  Philip  Augustus.  Innocent  re- 
garded Philip's  conquests  as  unjust  aggressions,  but  his 
threats  and  protests  failed  to  deter  the  French  king  in  the 
least.  The  pope  had  the  further  reason  for  taking  the  side 
of  the  English  king  that  he  was  an  ally  of  the  papal  protege 
in  Germany,  Otto  of  Brunswick, 

John,  however,  soon  showed  himself  such  an  unmitigated 
rascal  and  so  complete  a  failure  as  a  ruler,  that  he  was  un- 
likely to  remain  on  good  terms  with  Innocent  Misrule 
for  long.  He  interfered  in  episcopal  elections,  he  °^  J°^" 
seized  episcopal  revenues,  and  in  general  oppressed  the 
Church  and  the  clergy  as  he  did  every  one  else.  His  mother, 
Eleanor,  and  his  brother's  widow,  Berengaria,  both  com- 
plained to  the  pope  that  John  was  pocketing  their  private 
incomes.  Furthermore,  he  had  left  his  first  wife  and  married 
the  intended  bride  of  another  lord,  and  after  he  captured 
his  young  nephew,  Arthur,  whom  Philip  Augustus  had 
stirred  up  against  him,  the  boy  disappeared  forever  and 
John  was  charged  with  his  murder.  Arthur  was  the  son  of 
Geoffrey,  an  older  brother  than  John,  and  by  hereditary 
right  should  have  succeeded  Richard  on  the  throne  rather 
than  his  uncle,  John. 

It  was  not  these  evil  deeds  by  John,  however,  that  di- 
rectly caused  the  struggle  between  the  king  and  the  pope, 
but  a  disputed  election  to  the  Archbishopric  of  The  Canter- 
Canterbury.  This  highest  church  office  in  Eng-  '^"'^  election 
land  had  been  held  during  the  latter  part  of  Richard's  and 


458        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

the  early  part  of  John's  reign  by  Hubert  Walter,  a  faithful 
servant  of,  the  Crown.  Thomas  Becket  had  resigned  his 
position  as  chancellor  when  he  was  made  archbishop  and 
hacL  henceforth  served  the  Church  solely  and  had  opposed 
the  king  at  every  turn.  But  Hubert  served  as  justiciar  under 
Richard  and  as  chancellor  under  John  at  the  same  time  that 
he  was  archbishop.  The  cathedral  chapter  at  Canterbury, 
composed  of  monks,  had  recently  had  a  hotly  fought  dispute 
with  their  archbishop  because  Hubert's  predecessor  had 
instituted  a  community  of  secular  canons  in  another  church 
near  by.  The  case  had  gone  to  the  papal  court  and  was 
finally  settled  in  1201  by  a  compromise.  Now,  when  Hubert 
died  in  1205,  the  younger  monks  met  secretly,  elected  their 
sub-prior,  Reginald,  and  dispatched  him  with  equal  secrecy 
to  Rome  to  secure  papal  consecration.  As  he  passed  through 
Flanders,  however,  he  let  it  be  known  that  he  had  been 
elected,  and  this  news  soon  reached  England.  The  other 
bishops  were  indignant  because  they  claimed  a  voice  in  the 
selection  of  their  archbishop,  and  they  sent  an  embassy  to 
Innocent  to  complain.  Meanwhile  the  monks  seem  to  have 
regretted  their  hasty  action  in  choosing  Reginald;  at  any 
rate,  they  now  agreed  upon  the  king's  candidate,  the  Bishop 
of  Norwich.  After  a  year  of  deliberation  Innocent  annulled 
the  election  of  Reginald  on  the  ground  that  the  procedure 
had  been  illegal,  and  denied  the  other  bishops  any  share  in 
the  election,  but  he  also  set  aside  the  election  of  the  Bishop 
of  Norwich  and  instead  had  those  monks  of  Canterbury 
who  were  present  at  Rome  elect  a  candidate  of  his  own. 
This  was  Stephen  Langton,  a  noted  scholar  of  English  birth, 
though  for  many  years  he  had  been  at  the  University  of 
Paris  and  at  the  papal  court. 

John's  rage  at  this  rejection  of  his  candidate  was  un- 
bounded. He  refused  to  receive  Langton  and  drove  the 
John  is  monks  of  Canterbury  into  exile.     Innocent  re- 

become  the  plied  by  putting  England  under  an  interdict  in 
pope's  vassal  1208  and  by  excommunicating  John  the  next 
year.  Meanwhile  John  persecuted  the  clergy,  confiscated 
church  property,  and  instituted  a  reign  of  tyranny  and 


INNOCENT   III   AND   THE  STATES   OF   EUROPE     459 

terror.  Innocent  next  freed  all  John's  subjects  from  their 
oaths  of  allegiance  and  all  his  allies  from  their  treaty  engage- 
ments. Finally,  in  12 13  he  deposed  John  and  offered  the 
English  crown  to  Philip  Augustus,  who  began  to  prepare  for 
an  invasion.  John  now  was  forced  to  give  in  after  a  bitter 
struggle  of  seven  years,  for  he  found  that  his  barons  and 
subjects,  over  whom  he  had  tyrannized  as  well  as  over  the 
Church,  would  give  him  little  aid  against  Philip.  Accord- 
ingly he  not  only  agreed  to  receive  Langton  and  to  compen- 
sate the  clergy  for  the  injuries  done  them,  but  he  became 
the  vassal  of  the  pope  for  his  kingdom  and  agreed  to  pay  a 
tribute  of  one  thousand  pounds  a  year.  This  was  a  great 
triumph  for  Innocent.  William  the  Conqueror  had  refused 
to  make  England  a  papal  fief  and  become  the  vassal  of 
Gregory  VII;  now  Innocent  had  succeeded  where  Gregory 
had  failed.  Since  the  reign  of  William,  the  Norman  and 
Angevin  kings  of  England  had  exercised  the  most  absolute 
royal  authority  and  had  possessed  the  best  organized  state 
in  western  Europe;  now  they  were  reduced  to  vassalage  to 
the  Holy  See. 

But  Innocent's  triumph  w^as  not  unalloyed,  for  he  had 
encouraged  John's  barons  to  revolt  and  had  thus  developed 
in  England  a  power  as  hostile  to  the  Papacy  as  ^^^  papac 
to  the  Crown.  No  sooner  had  John  made  his  and  Magna 
peace  with  the  pope  than  he  had  to  settle  ac- 
counts with  his  nobility  and  people,  who,  under  the  lead  of 
the  very  man  whom  Innocent  had  put  in  as  archbishop, 
forced  from  their  tyrant  Magna  Carta,  the  foundation  of 
English  liberties.  Innocent  declared  this  charter  null  and 
void,  excommunicated  the  leaders  of  the  opposition  to 
his  vassal  John,  and  suspended  Stephen  Langton  from  his 
archbishopric.  But  the  English  barons  took  a  leaf  from 
Innocent's  own  book.  They  deposed  John  and  called  in 
French  aid.  Then,  when  John  unexpectedly  died  and  a  new 
pope  accepted  the  Great  Charter,  they  too  accepted  John's 
nine-year-old  son  as  their  king  and  drove  the  son  of  Philip 
Augustus  back  to  France,  just  as  Innocent  had  counter- 
manded the  father's  preparations  to  invade  England  in 


46o        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

1 213.  The  English  king  remained  the  vassal  of  the  pope, 
but  the  king's  vassals  in  England  had  forced  their  sovereign 
to  limit  his  power  over  them  and  to  admit  them  to  a  share 
in  the  government,  and  neither  pope  nor  king  had  been 
able  to  stop  them.  Innocent  had  triumphed  over  the  weak 
personality  of  John;  he  had  not  conquered  the  English 
nation. 

Moreover,  Innocent's  victory  over  John  was  partly  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  latter  had  already  been  so  humiliated 
Intractabil-  ^y  Philip  Augustus,  who  had  destroyed  most  of 
ity  of  Philip  the  Plantagenet  power  on  the  Continent.  Thus, 
ugus  us  ^hiie  the  English  king  was  weakened  for  a  time, 
the  French  monarch  kept  increasing  his  power.  And  he  did 
not  become  a  vassal  of  the  pope.  On  the  contrary,  his  rela- 
tions with  the  pope  in  temporal  matters  were  far  from  satis- 
factory to  Innocent,  although  the  king  always  displayed  a 
sufficient  outward  respect  for  the  Church  and  for  religion. 
Philip  conquered  Normandy  despite  papal  threats,  he  re- 
peatedly refused  to  join  the  crusade  against  the  Albigen- 
sians,  he  allied  with  the  anti-papal  party  in  Germany,  and 
he  allowed  his  son  to  invade  England  and  aid  the  barons 
whom  the  pope  had  excommunicated. 

In  only  one  matter  can  Innocent  be  said  to  have  forced 
his  will  upon  Philip,  and  that  was  a  case  where  the  king  had 
Divorce  case  clcarly  been  in  the  wrong.  No  sooner  had  he 
of  Ingeborg     married  Ingeborg  of  Denmark,  a  beautiful  and 

of  Denmark  •  1      r     •    1  u_  •  j_i  r 

pure  girl  of  eighteen,  in  1193,  than  for  some  un- 
explained reason  he  secured  the  assent  of  the  French  clergy 
to  a  divorce  and  married  again.  Ingeborg  appealed  to 
Rome  and  then  for  twenty  years  threats,  negotiations, 
excommunications,  pretended  reconciliations  with,  and  re- 
newed separations  from,  and  imprisonments  of  poor  Inge- 
borg succeeded  one  another.  Finally,  in  12 13,  when  about 
to  invade  England  as  the  pope's  ally,  Philip  gave  in  and 
restored  Ingeborg  to  her  rightful  place  as  queen,  which  she 
retained  for  the  rest  of  the  reign,  and  in  his  will  he  left  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  his  "dearest  wife." 

From  Innocent's  relations  with  the  English  and  French 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES  OF  EUROPE     461 

monarchs  we  turn  to  his  interference  in  Italian  and  German 
politics.  The  year  before  his  election  a  disaster  j^^jj^^^ 
had  befallen  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  the  policy  of 
House  of  Hohenstaufen  in  the  untimely  death  ^^'^^ 
of  the  emperor,  Henry  VI  (1190-1197).  This  son  of  Fred- 
erick Barbarossa,  through  a  marriage  which  his  father  had 
arranged  for  him  with  Constance,  the  Norman  heiress  of 
Sicily  and  southern  Italy,  had  acquired  that  well-organized 
kingdom.  And  the  party  strife  and  interurban  wars,  which 
had  at  once  begun  again  in  the  communes  of  Lombardy 
as  soon  as  their  danger  from  Barbarossa  was  over,  gave 
Henry  a  chance  to  renew  the  influence  of  the  Empire  there. 
Thus  he  threatened  to  crush  the  political  power  of  the 
pope  in  central  Italy  as  if  between  two  millstones.  He  had 
already  made  his  brother,  Philip  of  Suabia,  Duke  of  Tus- 
cany, and  had  planted  garrisons  in  Romagna,  the  March 
of  Ancona,  and  Umbria,  when  death  put  an  end  to  his  ambi- 
tious designs. 

Immediately  his  power  in  Italy  went  to  pieces.  Philip 
was  lucky  to  escape  from  Tuscany  and  across  the  Alps  with 
his  life.   The  Tuscan  towns,  aided  by  Innocent's  .       „ 

.         -^  .         .       Its  collapse 

predecessor,   formed   a  federation   to  mamtam 
their  independence  after  the  model  of  the  Lombard  League. 
The  cities  of  Romagna  and  Ancona  also  united  against 
German  rule,  and,  assisted  by  Innocent,  forced  the  imperial 
governor  to  retire  to  the  southern  kingdom. 

There,  too,  however,  the  widowed  queen-mother  Con- 
stance was  hostile  to  German  influence.  She  had  her  three- 
year-old  son  Frederick  crowned  King  of  Sicily,  innocent 
and  recognized  that  Innocent  was  feudal  over-  ^"*^  ^"^'^^ 
lord  of  the  kingdom.  Her  Norman  ancestors,  too,  had  done 
this  much,  but  Innocent  was  able  to  induce  her  to  surren- 
der the  right  which  they  had  secured  from  the  Papacy  of 
being  themselves  the  sole  papal  legates  in  their  lands  and 
thus  maintaining  complete  control  over  their  clergy.  After 
making  this  great  concession,  Constance  died  before  the 
first  year  of  Innocent's  reign  was  over,  but  not  before  she 
had  made  a  will  leaving  the  guardianship  of  her  infant  son 


462        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  the  regency  of  his  kingdom  to  the  pope.  During  most 
of  Innocent's  reign,  however,  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily  and 
southern  Italy  remained  in  a  state  of  anarchy  with  various 
persons  and  parties  contending  for  the  control  of  the  person 
of  the  young  king  and  disregarding  the  claims  of  the  pope. 
Meanwhile  in  Germany  there  was  a  disputed  election  to 
the  imperial  throne.  Frederick,  who  Henry  VI  had  in- 
T^u   J-     .J  tended  should  succeed  him,  was  passed  over  as 

1  he  disputed  .      .  ^ 

imperial  too  young,  and  the  majority  of  the  great  nobles 
e  ection  ^^^  clergy  chose  Philip  of  Suabia  to  succeed  his 

brother.  But  a  month  later  Otto  of  Brunswick,  son  of 
Henry  the  Lion,  the  Guelph  leader  against  Barbarossa,  was 
elected  by  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  and  a  few  lesser 
princes,  and  received  support  outside  Germany  from 
Richard  of  England,  who  thus  had  his  revenge  for  the  im- 
prisonment which  he  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Henry  VI 
on  his  way  home  from  the  Third  Crusade.  Civil  war  ensued 
between  the  adherents  of  the  two  candidates  and  soon 
Germany  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy. 

Both  sides  appealed  to  the  pope,  but  he,  while  insisting 
that  there  could  be  no  emperor  without  his  approval,  failed 
Innocent's  to  declare  for  either  of  the  rivals  for  three  years, 
interference  Meanwhile  confusion  reigned  in  Germany  and 
Innocent  was  free  from  any  imperial  interference  in  Italy. 
Finally,  in  1201,  he  came  out  for  Otto,  the  weaker  of  the  two 
both  in  right  and  in  might.  Otto  in  return  promised  to 
abandon  the  aggressive  Italian  policy  of  Henry  VI  and  to 
leave  Innocent  the  undisturbed  possession  of  central  Italy, 
or,  more  specifically,  of  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna,  the 
March  of  Ancona,  the  Duchy  of  Spoleto,  and  the  lands  of 
the  Countess  Matilda  of  Gregory  VII's  time.  Otto,  how- 
ever, was  not  yet  in  a  position  to  do  more  than  make  prom- 
ises. Philip  of  Suabia  continued  the  struggle  and  was  getting 
decidedly  the  better  of  it  when  in  1208  he  was  assassinated. 
Otto  now  was  able  to  come  to  Rome  and  be  crowned  by 
the  pope  in  1209  at  St.  Peter's,  although  the  hostility  of 
the  Romans  to  him  was  so  great  that  he  did  not  cross  the 
Tiber  and  enter  the  city  proper.     But  Otto,  despite  his 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES   OF   EUROPE     463 

promises,  soon  revived  the  Italian  policy  of  Henry  VI  and 
in  1 2 10  was  excommunicated  by  Innocent,  who  now  brought 
forward  young  Frederick  as  his  candidate  for  emperor. 
Otto  also  had  Philip  Augustus,  the  King  of  France,  for  an 
enemy,  and  when  that  monarch  defeated  him  in  12 14  at 
the  battle  of  Bouvines  in  northern  France,  he  gave  up  the 
struggle  for  the  imperial  throne  and  retired  to  his  private 
estates.   Again  Innocent  had  seemingly  triumphed. 

It  is  true  that  Frederick  was  the  son  of  Henry  VI,  and 
that  he  was  already  King  of  Sicily,  and  that  the  Papacy 
held  it  a  menace  to  its  independence  to  have  . 

^  Innocent 

Germany  and  southern  Italy  controlled  by  the  and  Fred- 
same  ruler.  But  Frederick  had  thus  far  shown 
himself  a  docile  vassal  in  Sicily;  he  promised  to  surrender 
Sicily  to  his  son  when  he  himself  should  be  crowned  em- 
peror; he  officially  confirmed  to  the  pope  all  the  territory 
in  Italy  which  Otto  had  promised;  and  he  made  further 
important  concessions  in  connection  with  the  control  of  the 
Church  in  Germany.  He  surrendered  the  "right  of  spoil "  or 
royal  custom  of  seizing  the  goods  of  dead  bishops ;  he  granted 
freedom  in  ecclesiastical  elections  and  freedom  of  appeal  to 
the  court  at  Rome.  Finally  he  agreed  to  go  on  a  crusade. 
But  after  Innocent's  death,  as  we  shall  see,  he  became  the 
arch-enemy  of  the  Papacy. 

The  absence  of  any  imperial  authority  in  Italy  during 
Innocent's   pontificate  - —  for   the    rival    candidates    spent 
practically  all  the  time  contending  in  Germany  innocent 
—  would  afford  a  good  opportunity,  one  might  i"^jan 
suppose,  for  the  pope  to  bring  actually  under  his  communes 
rule  the  territories  which  he  claimed  in  central  Italy.    But 
the  communes  with  which  that  region  was  now  filled,  while 
they  had  been  glad  to  join  with  Innocent  in  driving  out  the 
imperial  agents,  had  no  desire  to  accept  instead  the  rule  of 
the  pope  within  their  walls.    Only  after  a  struggle  of  ten 
years  was  Innocent  able  to  master  his  own  city  of  Rome, 
where  previous  popes  had  been  unable  to  prevent  the  com- 
munal movement  from  spreading.    At  one  time  Innocent 
and  his  brother  Richard  were  expelled  from  the  city,  be- 


464        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

cause  the  pope  had  aroused  the  jealousy  of  other  prominent 
Roman  families  by  the  favors  which  he  bestowed  upon  his 
brother,  and  because  the  commune  as  a  whole  had  been 
alarmed  by  a  gigantic  tower  which  Richard  had  built.  In 
the  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  as  the  territory  immediately 
north  and  south  of  Rome  was  called,  Innocent  succeeded  in 
establishing  something  like  order  by  1207,  when  he  held  at 
Viterbo  an  assembly  of  the  higher  clergy,  feudal  lords,  and 
magistrates  of  the  communes  throughout  the  Patrimony. 
But  his  efforts  to  exert  any  real  control  over  the  towns  of 
Umbria,  Ancona,  and  Romagna  were  quite  unsuccessful. 
They  continued  to  revolt,  to  elect  whom  they  pleased  as 
officials,  to  permit  party  strife  within  their  walls,  and  to 
fight  with  neighboring  towns,  until  the  pope  gave  up  in 
despair  and  turned  over  his  interests  in  the  entire  region  to 
a  lay  lord  as  a  fief. 

Innocent  was  displeased  that  the  constitution  of  the  Tus- 
can League  sanctioned  by  his  predecessor  made  no  mention 
of  any  subjection  to  the  Papacy,  but  he  was  unable  to 
secure  any  real  improvement  in  their  relations  to  him. 
Moreover,  the  great  Ghibelline  city,  Pisa,  refused  to  join 
the  league,  and  by  its  hold  on  the  coasts  of  Sardinia  pre- 
vented Innocent  from  making  good  his  claim  to  that  island. 
In  Lombardy  the  communes  displayed  an  increasingly 
secular  spirit,  and  Innocent  had  to  make  use  of  excom- 
munications and  interdicts  against  some  of  them  because  of 
their  support  of  heresy  or  attacks  upon  the  rights  and  prop- 
erty of  the  Church  or  the  persons  of  the  clergy.  But  the 
various  cities  of  Lombardy  were  too  busy  fighting  one 
another  to  pay  much  attention  to  the  pope  and  his  thunders. 
On  the  other  hand,  Venice  turned  a  whole  crusade  to  its  own 
profit. 

The  Fourth  Crusade,  which  occurred  during  Innocent's 
pontificate,  was  participated  in  chiefly  by  French  knights, 
The  Fourth  although  their  chosen  leader  was  an  Italian, 
Crusade  Boniface,  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  in  north- 
western Italy.  The  crusaders  determined  to  take  the  sea 
route,  and  Venice  agreed,  in  return  for  a  cash  payment  and 


INNOCENT   III   AND   THE  STATES   OF   EUROPE     465 

the  prospect  of  an  equal  share  in  all  conquests,  to  provide  a 
certain  number  of  galleys,  transport  their  army,  and  supply 
it  with  provisions  for  a  year.  The  crusaders,  however,  did 
not  keep  their  part  of  the  agreement  well.  Some  of  them 
showed  an  inclination  to  set  off  by  other  routes  of  their 
own  choosing;  others  were  dilatory  in  starting  at  all;  and 
when  finally  a  number  of  them  had  been  rounded  up  at 
Venice  considerably  later  than  the  day  appointed,  they 
were  fewer  than  had  been  expected  and  were  unable  to  pay 
the  full  amount  agreed  upon.  The  doge  offered  to  remit  this 
deficit  if  before  proceeding  on  the  crusade  they  would  aid 
Venice  in  conquering  Zara,  a  rival  city  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Adriatic.  Now,  Zara  was  a  Christian  city  claimed  by 
the  King  of  Hungary,  and  consequently  any  crusaders  who 
attacked  it  would  be  liable  to  excommunication.  The  Vene- 
tians, however,  who  refused  to  allow  the  papal  legate  to 
accompany  the  expedition,  cared  little  about  being  excom- 
municated, while  the  other  crusaders  had  a  shrewd  suspi- 
cion that  the  pope  would  pardon  them  immediately  after- 
wards, as  turned  out  to  be  the  case.  Therefore  they  aided 
in  the  storming  of  Zara. 

Then  the  expedition,  instead  of  proceeding  to  Syria  or 
Egypt,  went  to  Constantinople,  where  the  Venetian  mer- 
chants were  already  very  influential,  and  over-  Establish- 
threw  a  usurper  and  restored  the  hereditary  Lati^^  ^  ^ 
candidate  to  the  Byzantine  Empire.  When  he  Empire 
failed  to  keep  the  promises  which  he  had  made  in  order  to 
procure  their  aid,  they  deposed  him  in  turn  and  disgraced 
themselves  by  sacking  the  rich  city,  burning  many  build- 
ings, wantonly  destroying  works  of  art,  and  committing 
many  atrocities  and  brutal  crimes.  In  place  of  the  Greek 
Empire  and  Comnenian  dynasty,  whose  treachery  Western 
public  opinion  believed  to  have  been  largely  responsible  for 
the  failure  of  previous  crusades,  a  Latin  Empire  (1204-1261) 
was  now  set  up  with  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  as  its  first 
emperor.  Outside  Constantinople  itself,  however,  his  rule 
extended  only  to  Nicomedia,  a  part  of  Thrace,  and  four 
islands  in  the  JEgean  Sea.  Venice  received  Crete,  Euboea, 


466        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Corfu,  many  other  islands  and  coast  cities  of  the  Greek 
peninsula,  and  certain  quarters  of  Constantinople,  Boniface 
of  Montferrat  was  given  a  kingdom  about  Thessalonica; 
and  numerous  other  petty  fiefs,  such  as  the  Principality  of 
Morea  and  the  Duchy  of  Athens,  were  created  for  the 
crusaders  in  central  and  southern  Greece.  Their  holders 
were  nominally  vassals  of  the  Latin  emperor.  The  Greek 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  was  replaced  by  a  Venetian, 
and  Innocent,  who  had  distrusted  and  forbidden  the  digres- 
sion of  the  crusade  to  Constantinople,  was  now  reconciled 
to  it  by  the  prospect  of  seeing  all  southeastern  Europe  under 
papal  control.  But  this  did  not  alter  the  fact  that  the  pope 
and  his  legate  had  failed  to  direct  the  course  of  the  crusade. 
Moreover,  all  prospect  of  the  crusaders  continuing  their 
route  to  Syria  had  vanished ;  the  crusade  ended  at  Constan- 
tinople. 

During  the  next  few  years  Innocent  was  occupied  first 
with  the  Albigensian  Crusade  and  then  with  preaching  a 
Innocent  crusadc  to  aid  the  King  of  Castile  against  the 
and  the  Mohammedans  in  Spain.  The  pathetic  Children's 

Crusade  also  occurred  during  his  pontificate.  The 
crusade  to  the  East  was  again  urged  at  the  Fourth  Lateran 
Council,  but  no  armed  expedition  of  consequence  resulted. 
Innocent  was  always  talking  about  the  recovery  of  Jerusa- 
lem, but  he  himself  was  partly  responsible  for  keeping  the 
armies  of  Europe  otherwise  employed,  as  when  he  incited 
the  barons  to  rebel  against  John  and  when  he  urged  Philip 
Augustus  to  invade  England,  or  when  he  allowed  the  King 
of  Hungary  to  delay  indefinitely  his  crusading  vow  because 
his  presence  was  needed  as  a  check  upon  Philip  of  Suabia, 
or  when  he  kept  a  French  knight,  Walter  of  Brienne,  in 
southern  Italy  to  aid  him  in  conquering  the  Sicilian  king- 
dom. But  while  Innocent  had  failed  to  recover  Jerusalem, 
the  crusades  of  his  reign  led  to  an  extension  of  Latin  Chris- 
tendom in  both  the  Balkan  and  Spanish  peninsulas. 

Innocent  probably  deserves  to  be  called  the  greatest 
monarch  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  wielded  a  wide  interna- 
tional authority.    But  while  he  achieved  notable  triumphs, 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES  OF   EUROPE     467 

he  also  had  his  setbacks  and  failures.  And  his  attempt  to 
bring  all  Christendom  under  the  pope  as  tem-  Summary  of 
poral  overlord  as  well  as  spiritual  head  was  not  poii°ical^  ^ 
destined  to  be  carried  to  triumphant  comple-  activity 
tion  by  his  successors.  They  were  to  have  to  struggle  to 
maintain  their  political  independence  in  Italy,  and  were  to 
be  absorbed  in  a  desperate  conflict  with  Frederick  II,  who 
had  seemed  so  lamblike  in  his  submission  to  Innocent. 

From  12 1 2  to  1220  Frederick  was  in  Germany;  he  then 
returned  to  Italy  and  was  crowned  emperor  by  the  pope  at 
Rome;  thereafter  he  made  but  two  brief  visits  ^^^j 
to  Germany  and  concerned  himself  chiefly  with  reign  of 
Italian  afl'airs.  This  was  the  fundamental  cause 
of  his  strife  with  the  Papacy.  Before  Frederick  left  Ger- 
many the  princes  there  chose  his  young  son  Henry  as  King 
of  Germany,  and  the  pope  was  persuaded  to  permit  Fred- 
erick to  remain  King  of  Sicily.  In  return  Frederick  promised 
to  start  on  his  crusade  before  the  following  August  and 
issued  various  laws  against  heresy  and  in  favor  of  the 
Church.  But  he  found  much  disorder  to  suppress  in  south- 
ern Italy,  and  in  Sicily  it  was  necessary  to  crush  the  rebel- 
lious Saracens.  To  this  end  he  secured  another  postpone- 
ment of  his  crusading  vow,  and  it  was  only  after  five  years 
of  absorption  in  the  affairs  of  his  southern  kingdom  that  he 
once  again  promised  to  set  sail  for  the  Holy  Land  by 
August,  1227,  or  become  automatically  excommunicate. 
He  had  already  in  1222  married  the  heiress  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Jerusalem. 

Frederick  had  already  made  it  pretty  clear  that  he  was 
no  friend  of  the  communes.    In  Germany  he  had  granted 
powers  to  the  rulers  of  ecclesiastical  states  at  Frederick  1 1 
the   expense   of   the   rising   towns,    and   in   his  i"aiian^ 
southern  kingdom  he  annulled  the  trading  privi-  cities 
leges  and  monopolies  of  the  Italian  and  Provengal  ports 
like  Marseilles,  Genoa,  and  Pisa,  which  had  hitherto  en- 
joyed freedom  from  tolls  and  customs  and  had  practically 
held  the  chief  harbors  of  Sicily  as  their  own  trading  stations 
and  colonies.    He  intended  to  develop  a  merchant  marine 


468        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  navy  of  his  own  rather  than  allow  these  foreigners  to 
control  all  the  trade  of  the  land  or  have  to  depend  on  them 
for  transportation  when  he  wished  to  visit  Germany  or  go 
to  Palestine.  Therefore  the  cities  of  Lombardy  were  sus- 
picious of  Frederick's  intentions  when  he  summoned  the 
feudal  nobility  of  Germany  to  meet  him  at  Cremona  at 
Easter,  1226,  to  make  arrangements  for  the  crusade,  and 
when  he  marched  north  from  Apulia  at  the  head  of  an 
armed  force  to  meet  them.  Milan  and  her  allies  straightway 
formed  a  league  and  blocked  the  Alpine  passes  so  that  the 
Germans  were  unable  to  reach  Cremona.  The  Lombard 
cities  had  been  so  independent  since  the  death  of  Henry  VI 
that  now  they  were  unwilling  to  observe  even  the  terms  of 
the  Peace  of  Constance  which  they  had  forced  from  Bar- 
barossa.  A  few  towns,  however,  looked  eagerly  to  the 
emperor  for  aid  against  the  others. 

The  pope  undertook  to  arbitrate  between  Frederick  and 
the  towns;  but  as  he  secured  from  them  merely  a  promise 
p.     ,       h    *^  suppress  heresy  and  supply  a  few  knights  for 
with  the         the  crusade,   but  no  recognition  of  the  impe- 
apacy  ^j^j  claims,  Frederick  was  naturally  dissatisfied. 

Honorius  III  (1216-1227),  however,  who  had  directed 
Frederick's  education,  remained  on  friendly  terms  with  his 
former  pupil  and  perhaps  was  somewhat  duped  by  Freder- 
ick's plausible  promises  and  excuses  and  wily  diplomacy. 
But  now  a  more  uncompromising  pontiff  and  one  less  likely 
to  have  patience  with  Frederick  succeeded  to  the  Papacy 
as  Gregory  IX  (1227-1241).  When  the  emperor  at  last  set 
sail  from  Sicily  to  the  heel  of  Italy  to  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  assembled  crusaders,  a  pestilence  broke  out  in 
the  army  and  Frederick  himself  was  taken  sick  and  accord- 
ingly postponed  the  expedition.  But  the  pope  refused  to 
accept  any  excuse  and  excommunicated  him.  When  Fred- 
erick, despite  his  excommunication,  set  sail  for  the  East 
the  next  summer,  the  pope  did  what  he  could  to  render  his 
expedition  a  failure.  The  Sultan,  however,  was  having  so 
much  trouble  with  an  obstreperous  brother  that  he  had  no 
desire  for  war  with  Frederick.  Therefore,  although  the  latter 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES  OF  EUROPE     469 

arrived  with  only  about  ten  thousand  troops,  he  soon  gained 
by  negotiation  more  than  the  Christians  had  possessed 
since  the  recapture  of  Jerusalem  by  Saladin  in  1 187 ;  namely, 
the  possession  of  Jerusalem  and  Bethlehem  and  other  holy 
places  and  a  right  of  way  to  these  from  the  coast. 

When  Frederick  returned  to  Europe,  he  found  that  dur- 
ing his  absence  papal  troops  had  been  overrunning  his  king- 
dom, but  he  rapidly  drove  them  out  and  in  1230  Frederick 
secured  the  removal  of  his  excommunication,  jstration*'^' 
He  then  built  up  in  Sicily  and  southern  Italy  the  oi  Sicily 
most  absolute  monarchy  and  strongly  centralized  state  of 
his  time.  He  had  great  capacity  for  administrative  detail 
and  ruled  the  feudal  nobility  with  a  strong  hand.  They 
were  deprived  of  their  castles  and  forbidden  to  wage  wars 
with  one  another,  and  the  king  kept  criminal  justice  under 
his  own  control.  Such  methods  of  judicial  procedure  as  the 
ordeal  and  wager  of  battle  were  abandoned  and  court  pro- 
cedure was  fully  controlled  by  the  judges  and  was  not  in  the 
hands  of  the  litigants.  Frederick  took  from  his  subjects  not 
only  feudal  dues,  but  taxes  in  the  modern  sense  on  land, 
persons,  and  trade.  Salt,  metals,  and  dye-works  were  state 
monopolies,  as  indeed  they  had  been  in  the  period  of 
Arabian  rule.  But  we  learn  of  these  matters  from  a  book  of 
laws  compiled  for  his  kingdom  by  Frederick  in  1231.  He 
also  promoted  the  economic  welfare  of  his  kingdom  with  the 
result  that  he  soon  received  a  handsome  income  from  it. 

Frederick,  however,  was  about  to  become  embroiled  in 
wars  with  the  Lombard  cities  and  the  Papacy  which  would 
require  the  last  penny  that  he  had  in  his  treasury.  ,^  .  . 
The  pope  had  again  undertaken  to  arbitrate  the  Lom- 
between  the  emperor  and  the  Lombard  League,  ^^  ^^^"^ 
but  had  failed  to  secure  from  the  cities  the  least  submission 
to  the  imperial  authority  and  had  aroused  in  Frederick  a 
strong  suspicion  that  he  was  secretly  encouraging  the  com- 
munes in  their  attempt  to  maintain  a  complete  independ- 
ence. In  1234  young  Henry  rebelled  against  his  father  in 
Germany  and  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Lombard  League, 
but  he  was  captured  and  replaced  as  King  of  Germany 


470        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

by  Conrad  his  brother.  In  1237  Frederick  administered  a 
crushing  defeat  to  the  League,  and,  although  Milan  and 
several  other  cities  remained  untaken,  he  promptly  intro- 
duced his  administrative  system  wherever  he  could  in  the 
north.  But  he  appointed  Italians  as  his  officials  instead  of 
Germans  as  Barbarossa  and  Henry  VI  had  done. 

The  pope  was  alarmed  by  this  turn  of  affairs  and  still 

more  by  Frederick's  occupation  of  Tuscany  and  the  mar- 

,    ,     riage  of  Enzio,  one  of  Frederick's  illegitimate 

Renewal  of  =»  , .    .        ,     .  ...  . 

strife  with       sons,  to  a  Sardmian  heiress,  and  his  assumption 

the  Papacy       ^^    ^^^    ^-^^^    ^f    ^^^^    ^^    ^^^^    -^^^^^^    ^^^^^    ^^^ 

Papacy  claimed  as  its  fief.  Accordingly,  while  he  gave  many 
other  reasons  for  his  action,  such  as  that  Frederick  was  a 
heretic  and  had  oppressed  the  Church  in  Sicily,  Gregory  IX 
in  1239  again  excommunicated  him,  freed  his  subjects  from 
their  allegiance,  vainly  endeavored  to  set  up  a  rival  candi- 
date to  the  throne  in  Germany,  and  allied  with  the  Lombard 
League  and  Venice  and  Genoa  against  Frederick  in  Italy. 
But  from  1241  to  1243  there  was  a  vacancy  in  the  Papacy 
and  when  Innocent  IV  finally  was  elected,  he  soon  fled  from 
Italy  to  Lyons.  There  a  council  was  held  in  1245  and 
Frederick  was  excommunicated  and  deposed  once  more. 

With  this  began  a  struggle  to  the  death  between  the 
Papacy  and  the  House  of  Hohenstaufen.  Anti-kings  made 
^  J    ,  .         trouble  in  Germany,  Heinrich  Raspe  from  1246 

End  of  the  ,     ,tt.,i.  r     tt     h  1      r 

Hohen-  to  1 247  and  William  of  Holland  irom  1247  to 

staufens  1256;  then  foUowed  until  1273  a  period  of  inter- 

regnum during  which  there  was  no  imperial  authority  in 
Germany.  In  Italy  young  Enzio  was  captured  in  1249  and 
kept  in  honorable  captivity  at  Bologna  for  the  remaining 
twenty-two  years  of  his  life.  Frederick  himself  died  in  1250 
and  his  son  Conrad  four  years  later,  leaving  an  infant  son 
Conradin.  Manfred,  however,  another  son  of  Frederick 
and  half-brother  of  Conrad,  continued  the  struggle  in  Italy 
as  King  of  Sicily.  Henry  III  of  England  was  induced  by  the 
pope  in  1254  to  accept  the  throne  of  Sicily  for  his  second  son 
Edmund  and  to  supply  the  pope  with  money  in  return,  but 
Edmund  never  gained  Sicily.  Then  Urban  IV  (1261-1264), 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES  OF   EUROPE     471 

the  son  of  a  charcoal-seller  of  Troyes  in  Champagne,  offered 
the  Sicilian  crown  to  Charles  of  Anjou,  brother  of  the  French 
king.  Manfred  was  defeated  and  slain  in  1266  and  two  years 
later  the  young  Conradin,  the  last  representative  of  the 
Hohenstaufen  line,  was  captured  and  executed. 

Charles  of  Anjou  was  not  able  to  hold  the  entire  Sicilian 
kingdom  of  Frederick  II,  however.    After  a  few  years  the 
Sicilians   rose   against    his   French   troops   and   Division  into 
officials,  who  were  massacred  in  the  "Sicilian  ^^° '^''}^"„ 
Vespers"  of  1282.   Eventually  the  island  of  Sic-  Sicily  and 
ily  passed  as  a  separate  kingdom  to  a  younger  ^^P^^^ 
branch  of  the  royal  line  in  Aragon,  and  the  House  of  Anjou 
had  to  be  content  with  southern  Italy,  or  the  Kingdom  of 
Naples. 

The  Papacy  had  thus  triumphed  over  the  Hohenstaufens 
and  had  prevented  the  growth  of  a  strong  national  state  in 
Italy,  just  as  it  had  done  earlier  in  the  case  of  the  Abuses  re- 
Lombard  kings.    But  this  political  triumph  had  suiting  in 

1  11^  J.        •  ^  •        ^  1        the  Church 

been  purchased  at  a  great  price,  lo  raise  the 
necessary  money  and  troops,  and  to  secure  the  support  of 
influential  persons  and  families  against  the  Hohenstaufens, 
the  popes  had  had  to  tax  the  clergy  heavily  and  to  sell  church 
offices  or  bestow  them  upon  unsuitable  candidates.  So  while 
Gregory  VII  had  begun  the  struggle  with  the  Empire  in 
order  to  root  simony  out  of  the  Church  by  attacking  lay 
investiture  and  by  securing  local  freedom  of  election.  Inno- 
cent IV,  in  order  to  defeat  Frederick,  had  taken  the  appoint- 
ment to  many  ecclesiastical  benefices  away  from  the  local 
clergy  into  his  own  hands  and  had  condoned,  if  not  actually 
practiced,  simony  in  making  his  appointments.  He  regarded 
such  appointments  or  "provisions"  as  a  necessary  but  only 
temporary  evil,  but  the  practice  was  continued  by  his  suc- 
cessors, and  the  Papacy  kept  demanding  more  and  more 
taxes  and  filling  more  and  more  church  offices  with  its  own 
candidates. 

Outwardly  it  might  seem  that  the  pope  had  even  more 
power  toward  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  than  at  its 
beginning  under  Innocent  III.    But  this  heavy  taxation  of 


472        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

the  local  clergy  and  this  filling  of  church  positions  with 
Eff  n  foreigners  and  place-hunters  aroused  a  local, 
papal  popular,    or   national   opposition   which    mani- 

pres  ige  fested  itself  at  this  time  especially  in  England 

and  which  in  the  end  was  to  cost  the  Papacy  dear.  More- 
over, the  popes  had  shown  themselves  too  bitter  and  unre- 
lenting against  the  Hohenstaufens  and  thereby  lost  some- 
thing of  the  moral  support  which  public  opinion  had  hitherto 
almost  invariably  accorded  to  the  Church  in  its  quarrels 
with  the  State.  Finally,  the  popes  had  not  been  able  to 
put  down  the  Hohenstaufens  unaided ;  they  had  sought  the 
aid  of  England  and  France;  they  had  fled  to  Lyons  them- 
selves and  had  brought  Charles  of  Anjou  into  Italy.  They 
had  blighted  in  the  bud,  it  is  true,  the  promising  beginning 
toward  a  strongly  centralized  state  made  by  Frederick  II  in 
Sicily,  but  the  Angevin  rulers  of  the  Kingdom  of  Naples 
were  not  destined  to  get  on  with  their  papal  neighbors  much 
more  harmoniously  than  their  predecessors  had  done. 

It  was  also  now  evident  that  in  Italy  at  large  and  in 
Germany  there  was  no  longer  any  hope  of  national  states 
Eff  t  on  developing  in  the  Middle  Ages,  although  the 
the  states  vigorous  municipal  life  of  the  Italian  communes 
urope  ^^g  ^^  bring  forth  great  social,  economic,  and 
artistic  progress  in  the  succeeding  centuries,  and  for  a  time 
sweep  the  Papacy  away  with  it.  But  for  the  present  what 
the  Papacy  had  to  face  was  the  growth  of  royal  and  national 
institutions  in  France  and  England.  To  these  new  forces, 
which  were  independent  of  pope  and  Church,  and  which 
also  mark  a  development  away  from  the  feudal  states  and 
conditions  of  the  preceding  centuries,  we  shall  next  turn  our 
attention. 


INNOCENT   III   AND  THE  STATES   OF  EUROPE     473 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

The  Secular  Power  of  Innocent  III. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  214-33, 
selections  123-35. 

Summarize  the  contents  of  each  of  these  original  documents,  and 
connect  each  with  some  statement  in  the  above  chapter  which  it  goes 
to  prove  or  to  illustrate. 

Frederick  II  and  the  Papacy. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  233-59, 
selections  136-45. 

Follow  the  above  directions,  but  in  the  case  of  documents  contain- 
ing numerous  numbered  articles,  do  not  summarize  each  article,  but 
try  to  state  their  general  tenor  in  a  few  sentences. 

Reign  of  Henry  VI. 

Henderson,  Germany  in  the  Middle  Ages,  chaps,  xix,  XX. 

Reign  of  Frederick  II. 

Henderson,  Germany  in  the  Middle  Ages,  chaps,  xxil-xxvi. 
Tout,  Empire  and  Papacy,  pp.  358-92. 

Frederick  II  and  Sicily. 

Fisher,  The  Medieval  Empire,  vol.  ll,  pp.  167-200. 

Frederick  II  and  the  Lombard  Communes. 
Butler,  The  Lombard  Communes,  chap,  ix  or  x. 

The  Fall  of  Ezzelino. 

Butler,  The  Lombard  Communes,  chap.  xi. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN  ENGLAND 

England  became  a  distinct  nation  before  any  other 
European  country.  Ever  since  the  decHne  of  the  Roman 
Early  Empire  its  history  had  been  distinctive.     The 

o"nationd  Romans  abandoned  it  before  their  other  western 
union  provinces,  and  it  was  the  one  land  of  any  size 

where  the  language  of  the  German  invaders  replaced  that 
of  the  Roman  provincials.  The  British  Isles  were  almost 
the  only  Christian  lands  of  the  West  that  were  not  included 
in  Charlemagne's  empire.  When  that  empire  dissolved  into 
local  lordships,  the  petty  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms,  on  the 
contrary,  began  to  coalesce  into  one  state.  The  Northmen 
and  other  invaders  disrupted  the  Prankish  Empire.  But 
under  King  Alfred  and  his  successors  the  Anglo-Saxons 
united  in  resistance  to  the  Danish  invaders.  The  Danes, 
too,  soon  fused  with  their  Anglo-Saxon  kinsmen  into  one 
homogeneous  people.  Feudal  tendencies  manifested  them- 
selves, it  is  true,  but  William  the  Conqueror  and  his  sons 
greatly  strengthened  the  royal  power  and  developed  a  busi- 
nesslike central  administration  which  did  much  to  hold  the 
country  together.  The  Normans  in  their  turn  were  absorbed 
into  the  mass  of  the  population.  The  language  gradually 
altered  under  French  and  Latin  influence  from  Anglo-Saxon 
to  something  more  like  our  modern  English.  Art  and  cul- 
ture and  ecclesiastical  usages  were  affected  by  the  Conti- 
nent. But  the  Norman  kings  retained  the  old  local  institu- 
tions and  agreed  to  observe  the  ancient  customs  of  the  reign 
of  Edward  the  Confessor. 

The  Norman  kings,  nevertheless,  had  introduced  feudal 
institutions  into  England  and  were  themselves  obliged  to 
The  king  rulc  largely  by  feudal  methods.  However,  they 
feudaf^  were  successful  in  crushing  all  attempts  at  rebel- 

nobles  lion  on  the  part  of  their  barons  until  the  twenty 

years  of  disputed  succession  and  civil  war  between  Stephen 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN  ENGLAND       475 

and  Matilda.  Then  the  feudal  lords  were  able  to  do  much 
as  they  pleased,  but  they  so  misconducted  themselves  that 
every  one  became  quite  disgusted  with  their  misrule,  and  in 
1 1 54  the  new  king,  Henry  II,  had  little  difficulty  in  quickly 
restoring  order.  Of  this  and  of  Henry's  vast  feudal  posses- 
sions on  the  Continent  and  of  his  struggle  with  Thomas 
Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  we  have  already  spoken 
in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  chapters. 

Henry  was  somewhat  corpulent,  but  none  the  less  a 
dynamo  of  energy.  He  could  not  sit  still  in  church,  he  was 
ever  on  the  go  from  one  part  of  his  wide  domin-  „        „ 

1  11-  tr-1  Henry  II 

ions  to  another,  he  devoted  himself  with  equal 
rapidity  and  zest  to  hunting  or  state  business  or  literature 
and  learning.  His  anger  was  terrible  when  aroused,  and 
even  when  in  good  humor  he  kept  his  ministers  and  cour- 
tiers in  a  state  bordering  upon  nervous  prostration  by  his 
incessant  activity.  Henry's  troublesome  Continental  pos- 
sessions forced  him  to  spend  more  of  his  time  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Channel  than  in  England.  But  he  drew  up  many 
measures  for  the  government  of  England,  and  his  brief 
periods  of  residence  in  that  country  were  very  busy  times. 
He  appointed  able  ministers  to  carry  on  the  central  govern- 
ment in  his  absence,  and  he  sent  itinerant  justices  to  extend 
his  authority  throughout  the  land.  These  officials  resembled 
the  missi  of  Charlemagne  and  had  already  existed  under 
Henry  I,  but  had  disappeared  during  the  disorder  of 
Stephen's  reign.  So  well  did  Henry  II  develop  the  govern- 
mental machinery  that  his  son  and  successor,  Richard  the 
Lion-Hearted,  was  enabled  to  spend  only  six  months  of  his 
ten  years'  reign  in  England. 

Henry's  greatest  contribution  to  English  government  and 
nationality  was  the  founding  of  the  common  law.  Else- 
where in  Europe  at  this  time  there  was  the  great-  The  com- 
est  diversity  of  courts  and  legal  systems.  There  "^°"  '^^ 
was  canon  law  and  feudal  law  and  the  law  merchant  and 
the  revived  Roman  law.  There  were  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  independent  municipal  and  manorial  courts.  There 
was  an  infinite  variety  of  local  custom  and  usage,  from 


476        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

which  in  England  alone  was  there  to  be  developed  in  the 
Middle  Ages  a  national  body  of  law.  In  England  alone 
were  the  royal  courts  and  judges  to  be  supreme  over  the 
entire  land.  This  was  to  a  large  extent  the  work  of  Henry  II 
and  his  itinerant  justices.  They  traversed  the  country 
looking  after  royal  interests  and  holding  courts  or  "assizes" 
throughout  the  shires  in  the  king's  name.  By  means  of 
royal  writs  they  took  certain  cases  away  from  the  courts  of 
the  feudal  lords,  and  at  the  same  time  they  brought  the  old 
English  local  courts  of  justice  in  shire  and  hundred  directly 
under  royal  control.  They  combined  the  popular  legal  cus- 
toms which  they  found  in  the  various  localities  with  new 
methods  of  procedure  which  emanated  from  the  king,  thus 
gradually  building  up  a  common  law  for  all  England.  These 
royal  judges  and  administrative  officials  often  had  studied 
the  Roman  law  and  were  influenced  by  its  spirit  and  scien- 
tific character,  but  they  did  not  attempt  to  introduce  it 
as  a  whole  in  the  place  of  English  custom.  This  is  shown 
by  two  important  treatises  of  the  time  upon  the  laws  and 
customs  of  England,  the  one  written  either  by  Ranulf 
Glanville  or  by  Hubert  Walter  toward  the  close  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  II,  and  the  other  written  by  Bracton  in  the 
thirteenth  century. 

Not  only  did  the  judges  go  about  the  kingdom  on  circuit, 
but  when  with  the  king  or  at  Westminster  they  constituted 
Th  thr  central  courts  of  justice  which  became  perma- 

courts  of         nent  and  ultimately  supplanted  all  other  juris- 

common  law     j-    -•    _       '-ni  u  j.       r  i 

dictions,  i  hree  such  courts  oi  common  law  grew 
up  in  the  course  of  the  thirteenth  century;  namely,  the 
Court  of  the  Exchequer  which  at  first  considered  cases 
connected  with  the  royal  revenue,  the  King's  Bench  which 
originally  dealt  with  important  criminal  cases  and  other 
suits  in  which  the  Crown  was  concerned,  and  the  Common 
Pleas  whose  jurisdiction  covered  lawsuits  between  private 
parties.  But  "in  the  end  it  came  about  that,  while  each 
court  had  some  work  all  its  own,  each  could  entertain  any 
of  the  common  civil  actions." 

A  chief  feature  of  procedure  by  the  royal  justices  under 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND       477 

the  common-law  system  was  the  inquisitio,  or  sworn  inquest 
of  the  neighborhood.  This  process,  which  seems  to  have 
come  down  from  late  Roman  times  through  The  sworn 
the  Prankish  Empire,  we  have  seen  developed  by  '"<3"^st 
the  Church  in  the  thirteenth  century  into  the  hated  inquisi- 
tion. In  England  it  was  the  seed  from  which  has  grown 
modern  trial  by  jury  and  perhaps  also  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. William  the  Conqueror  had  employed  this  institu- 
tion in  collecting  the  necessary  information  for  his  Domes- 
day Book,  and  some  further  use  of  it  for  administrative  or 
even  judicial  purposes  had  been  made  by  the  other  kings 
before  Henry  II.  But  it  was  he  who  first  made  systematic 
and  steady  use  of  it.  He  had  inquests  made  about  this,  that, 
and  everything  —  an  inquest  of  sheriffs,  inquiries  as  to  the 
keepers  of  castles,  inquiry  into  feudal  aids  for  marrying  his 
daughter,  inquiry  as  to  the  state  of  repair  of  buildings  on 
the  royal  demesne. 

Henry  introduced  the  sworn  inquest  in  both  civil  and 
criminal  cases.  He  decreed  that  certain  suits  concerning  the 
ownership  or  possession  of  land  should  be  settled  Trial  by 
in  his  courts  by  the  sworn  testimony  of  twelve  J"''^ 
knights  or  freeholders  of  the  neighborhood.  By  1300  this 
method  had  become  "part  of  the  normal  procedure  in  almost 
every  kind  of  civil  action."  At  first  those  men  were  selected 
who  were  most  likely  to  know  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  they 
were  put  upon  their  oath  to  tell  what  they  knew.  Their 
evidence,  however,  was  also  in  the  nature  of  a  verdict  that 
settled  the  suit.  Moreover,  they  were  allowed  to  consult 
documentary  evidence  and  to  take  the  testimony  of  others, 
until  gradually  a  distinction  grew  up  between  the  witnesses 
and  the  jurors  as  in  modern  trials. 

Our  grand  jury,  which  determines  whether  there  Is  suffi- 
cient evidence  to  warrant  putting  a  person  on  trial  for  the 
crime  in  question,  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  another 
sworn  inquest  of  Henry's  time,  in  which  twelve  knights  or 
freemen  of  each  hundred  were  to  take  oath  to  tell  the  royal 
judges  whom  they  suspected  of  having  committed  the  recent 
robberies  and  murders  In  their  localities.    Such  suspected 


478       THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

persons  were  then  forced  to  undergo  the  ordeal  to  determine 
their  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  charge  thus  brought  against 
them.  Henry  II,  however,  was  dissatisfied  with  the  ordeals 
as  methods  of  proof  long  before  Innocent  III  forbade  the 
clergy  to  take  part  in  them.  Henry  showed  this  by  ordering 
these  accused  persons  to  leave  England  even  though  they 
passed  through  the  ordeal  successfully. 

At  some  later  date  the  jury  came  into  use  for  the  actual 
trial  of  criminal  cases,  and  after  Innocent's  decree  the  or- 
deals went  out  of  use.  The  trial  jury  also  consisted  of  men  of 
the  neighborhood  and  sometimes  was  the  same  as  the  accus- 
ing jury.  At  that  time  there  was  no  objection  to  having 
jurymen  who  were  already  informed  about  the  circum- 
stances of  the  crime  or  who  had  formed  an  opinion  about 
the  case.  At  first,  indeed,  these  were  the  very  men  for  whom 
the  king's  justices  were  looking. 

In  this  institution  of  the  sworn  inquest  we  see  central  and 
local  governments  working  together.  The  new  process  is 
The  sworn  introduced  by  the  king  and  his  justices,  but  to 
T*n^of local  execute  it  requires  the  services  of  the  knights 
activity  and  freeholders  of  the  neighborhood.    Indeed, 

it  is  probable  that  the  new  procedure  would  not  have  taken 
such  general  hold,  had  not  the  English  people  already  been 
accustomed  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  to  take  an  active 
part  in  keeping  the  peace  and  in  settling  cases  in  their  local 
courts  of  the  shire  and  hundred.  In  fact,  one  law  of  the  reign 
of  Ethelred  II  might  suggest  that  there  had  been  something 
like  a  grand  jury  already  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  period.  It 
prescribes  that  a  court  shall  be  held  in  every  wapentake,  a 
local  division  similar  to  the  hundred  found  in  some  parts  of 
England,  and  that  "the  twelve  senior  thegns  go  out  and  the 
reeve  with  them,  and  swear  on  the  relic  that  is  given  them 
in  hand,  that  they  will  accuse  no  innocent  man,  nor  conceal 
any  guilty  one."  However  that  may  be,  in  the  case  of  the 
sworn  inquest  under  Henry  II  we  see  the  officials  of  the 
central  government  going  to  the  localities  for  information, 
which  they  obtain  from  a  certain  number  of  leading  or 
representative  men.    By  this  method,  for  instance,  the  Con- 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND       479 

queror  had  been  enabled  to  determine  how  much  property 
there  was  in  the  land  available  for  purposes  of  taxation. 

Another  way  of  achieving  the  same  end  would  be  to  sum- 
mon these  men  of  the  localities  to  one  central  meeting-place, 
instead  of  having  the  royal  officials  go  to  them,  change  from 
The  idea  of  a  general  assembly  and  representa-  'o^^'  ''.ep^e- 

1  1        r        -I"  111        sentation  to 

tive  body  was  already  familiar  through  the  a  national 
church  synods  and  councils  and  the  feudal  court  ^^^^"^bly 
attended  by  vassals  and  tenants-in-chief.  Also  in  England 
the  vills  or  townships  had  long  been  accustomed  to  send  six 
men  each  to  represent  them  at  the  court  of  the  hundred, 
and  the  hundred  in  its  turn  sent  twelve  men  to  the  shire 
court.  All  that  remained  to  be  done,  therefore,  was  that  the 
shires  —  and  also  the  towns  which  had  recently  grown  up  — 
should  send  representatives  to  a  national  assembly.  The 
first  known  instance  of  the  shires'  being  asked  to  send  repre- 
sentatives was  in  the  reign  of  John  in  12 13,  two  years  before 
Magna  Carta,  when  the  king  summoned  four  men  from  each 
shire  "to  confer  with  us  about  the  affairs  of  our  realm." 
Some  time  was  to  elapse,  however,  before  this  develop- 
ment toward  a  representative  national  assembly  was  com- 
pleted, and  meantime  we  must  pause  to  consider  Magna 
Carta  itself. 

While  England  had  submitted  much  more  docilely  than 
Henry's  Continental  fiefs  to  the  legal  methods  and  the 
constructive  enactments  of  his  strong  govern-  The  tyranny 
ment,  it  would  not  endure  the  illegal  and  capri-  °^  J*^^^'^ 
cious  despotism  of  John,  who  was  selfish,  treacherous,  un- 
just, and  oppressive.  Moreover,  John  was  unsuccessful  and 
lost  most  of  the  French  possessions  which  Henry  and 
Richard  had  held,  and  then  was  worsted  in  his  quarrel  with 
Innocent  III  and  became  the  vassal  of  the  pope.  Therefore, 
toward  the  close  of  his  reign  the  feudal  nobility  of  England 
banded  together  —  by  feudal  theory  they  were  entitled  to 
take  up  arms  against  their  lord  if  he  exceeded  his  powers 
over  them  —  and  forced  the  king  to  promise,  by  signing 
the  Great  Charter,  to  reform  all  the  abuses  in  his  govern- 
ment of  which  they  complained. 


48o        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Although  the  Great  Charter  is  the  most  important  single 
document  in  English  medieval  history,  it  was  not  the  first 
Granting  of  instance  of  a  written  charter  in  which  a  king  of 
kings^before  Erigl^nd  made  promises  and  concessions  to  his 
John  people.  William  Rufus    seems    to  have  made 

merely  verbal  promises  of  good  government  in  order  to 
secure  English  support  against  his  older  brother  Robert, 
whose  claim  to  the  throne  the  Norman  barons  were  inclined 
to  support.  At  any  rate,  whatever  promises  Rufus  made, 
he  did  not  keep  them.  But  Henry  I  had  issued  at  the  open- 
ing of  his  reign  a  written  charter  of  liberties  in  fourteen 
articles  promising  to  abolish  the  evils  of  Rufus's  reign. 
Henry  II  confirmed  this  charter  at  his  accession,  and  it  was 
taken  as  the  precedent  and  model  of  the  much  longer 
Magna  Carta. 

Hitherto  in  feudal  England  the  nation  had  regularly  sided 
with  the  king  against  the  barons.  The  king,  although  at 
„.    .r  times  a  hard  master,  seemed  to  the  people  to 

Significance  i       r        i    i 

of  Magna  represent  law  and  order  better  than  the  feudal 
^^^^^  lords.  Under   the   tyranny   of  John,   however, 

public  opinion  changed  sides,  and  the  barons,  who  by  this 
time  had  themselves  become  more  English,  received  general 
support  in  forcing  the  king  to  sign  the  charter.  They  were 
therefore  in  a  sense  representatives  of  the  nation,  and  the 
provisions  of  the  charter  were  beneficial  to  the  country  at 
large  as  well  as  to  the  tenants-in-chief  of  the  king.  A  major- 
ity of  the  sixty-three  clauses  deal,  it  is  true,  with  feudal  mat- 
ters, and  the  greater  part  of  these  in  turn  are  concerned  with 
the  relations  of  the  king  with  his  immediate  vassals.  He  is 
not  to  increase  the  amounts  of  their  feudal  reliefs,  nor 
exceed  his  rights  of  wardship  and  marriage,  nor  take  any 
other  than  the  three  customary  feudal  aids  without  the 
consent  of  the  common  council  composed  of  his  vassals. 
There  are,  however,  provisions  for  the  benefit  of  subvassals, 
of  the  merchants  who  are  guaranteed  standard  measures 
and  are  allowed  to  move  about  freely,  and  of  the  freemen  in 
general,  while  one  clause  mentions  even  the  humble  villein. 
Prominent  among  the  provisions  which  benefit  freemen  in 


NATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND      481 

general  are  the  articles  correcting  abuses  in  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  and  promising  that  no  freeman  shall  be  im- 
prisoned or  punished  without  a  legal  trial,  and  that  "to  no 
one  will  we  sell,  to  no  one  will  we  deny  or  delay  right  or 
justice." 

It  is  noteworthy  that  there  was  such  united  action  by  the 
English  feudal  nobles  against  the  Crown.  This  was  largely 
due  to  the  fact  that  all  the  great  lords  and  many  The  Great 
of  the  lesser  nobles  held  their  lands  directly  of  Council 
the  king,  and  that  out  of  the  feudal  custom  of  court  attend- 
ance, which  as  vassals  they  owed  to  their  lord  the  king,  had 
grown  a  great  council  of  the  leading  nobles.  It  was  at  a 
meeting  of  this  body  in  12 13  that  the  agitation  began  which 
led  to  the  signing  of  Magna  Carta  two  years  later.  The 
Charter  in  turn  assigned  to  the  Great  Council  an  important 
place  in  the  government  and  declared  that  its  assent  was 
necessary  for  all  taxes  other  than  the  three  customary  feudal 
aids.  The  Great  Council  had  come  to  consist  mainly  of  the 
leading  nobles,  because  the  number  of  tenants-in-chief  who 
held  their  fiefs  directly  of  the  king  was  too  great  in  England 
to  make  it  advisable  that  all  of  them  should  be  strictly  held 
to  the  feudal  duty  of  court  attendance.  The  Charter  there- 
fore directs  that  the  king  shall  summon  individually  by 
letter  the  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  earls,  and  greater 
barons,  while  other  tenants-in-chief  shall  merely  receive  a 
general  invitation  from  the  sheriffs  and  bailiffs  in  the 
shire. 

In  12 1 6  John  died  while  vainly  struggling  to  repudiate  the 
Charter  and  to  crush  the  barons.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
nine-year-old  son,  Henry  III.  During  Henry's  Misrule  of 
minority  the  regency  was  shared  between  the  Henry  ill 
papal  legates,  —  for  the  pope  as  feudal  overlord  of  England 
claimed  Henry  as  his  ward,  —  the  barons,  and  Hubert  de 
Burgh,  one  of  the  chief  royal  officials  of  John's  reign.  Their 
rule  was  on  the  whole  conformable  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Charter.  But  as  the  king  came  of  age,  he  came  into  conflict, 
like  his  father  before  him,  with  the  nobility  of  the  realm. 
Henry  was  a  better  man  than  John  and  a  sympathetic 


482        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

patron  of  the  Church  and  art  and  learning.  But  his  person- 
ality was  weak,  although  well-meaning,  and  he  fell  too  much 
under  the  influence  of  clever  and  greedy  foreigners  from 
Poitou,  Provence,  and  Savoy,  and  asked  for  too  many 
taxes.  Moreover,  during  his  reign  the  popes  were  constantly 
calling  upon  the  English  clergy  and  people  for  contributions 
to  help  them  in  their  wars  against  the  Hohenstaufen  em- 
perors, and  were  selling  offices  in  the  English  Church  to  for- 
eigners or  giving  them  to  members  of  influential  Italian 
families  whose  aid  the  popes  wished  to  secure.  The  king, 
too,  often  engaged  in  costly  campaigns  on  the  Continent  in 
a  vain  effort  to  recover  the  fiefs  which  his  father  had  lost. 

The  Great  Council  became  the  chief  organ  of  national 
opposition  to  Henry's  misrule,  as  may  be  briefly  illustrated 
Opposition  ^y  ^"^  ^^  ^^^  sessions  in  1242  at  London.  On  this 
by  the  Great  occasion  the  nobility  steadfastly  refused  to  grant 
the  king  any  taxes  for  a  military  expedition 
which  he  had  planned  on  the  Continent  and  in  connection 
with  which  he  had  already  contracted  alliances.  They  went 
further  and  bitterly  criticized  his  government.  They  wished 
to  know  what  had  become  of  previous  grants  of  money 
which  he  had  received  from  them ;  they  asked  that  the  king 
consult  first  with  them  before  committing  himself  to  such 
perilous  and  expensive  foreign  expeditions.  After  a  vain 
attempt  to  bring  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  Council,  Henr\^  finally  dismissed  the  assembly  in 
anger,  but  without  securing  any  financial  aid. 

Thus  it  went  until  the  king  accepted  the  crown  of  Sicily 
at  the  hands  of  the  pope  for  his  second  son,  Edmund,  — 
Provisions      ^^  undertaking  which  would  benefit  England 

of  Oxford,  little  even  if  it  were  successful,  and  which  in- 
12^8 

volved  large  expenditures  for  troops  and  pay- 
ments to  the  pope.  The  barons  consequently  lost  patience, 
and  in  1258  took  the  government  out  of  Henry's  hands  and 
by  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  appointed  various  committees 
from  their  own  number  to  conduct  the  government  and  to 
reform  the  constitution.  This  arrangement  did  not  work 
well,  however,  and  the  lesser  nobility  or  knights  wrote  to 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND       483 

Prince  Edward,  the  king's  oldest  son,  protesting  against  it 
as  too  oligarchical. 

By  this  time  the  Great  Council  was  coming  to  be  calleci 
a  "parliament,"  or  meeting  to  talk  things  over.  We  have 
heard  the  same  word  used  in  the  Italian  cities  c-        j 

himon  de 

for  a  popular  mass-meetmg,  parlamento,  and  in  Montfort's 
France  it  came  to  be  applied  to  the  chief  court  of  ^^  'ament 
justice,  parlement.  In  England  it  was  to  be  transformed 
from  a  council  of  magnates  summoned  by  the  king  into  a 
national  assembly  of  two  houses,  one  a  hereditary  body  com- 
posed of  nobles,  the  other  a  locally  elected  body  represent- 
ing the  commons  or  people.  Under  Simon  de  Montfort,  a 
son  of  the  leader  of  the  Albigensian  Crusade  and  for  a  time 
one  of  the  king's  foreign  favorites,  but  who  now  took  the 
lead  in  the  movement  toward  reform,  a  parliament  was  held 
in  1265  to  which  were  summoned  not  only  prelates  and 
greater  barons,  but  two  knights  from  each  shire  and  two 
burgesses  from  each  of  twenty-one  towns.  But  the  next 
year  Simon  was  defeated  and  slain  in  battle  by  royal  forces 
under  Prince  Edward,  who  for  a  time  had  supported 
De  Montfort,  but  then  had  become  reconciled  with  his 
father. 

After  the  death  of  Simon,  Prince  Edward  won  back  the 
other  barons  by  his  conciliatory  attitude  and  then  went  off 
on  a  crusade.   While  he  was  thus  absent,  Henry  ^ , 

TTT     ,.     1     1  1  1-  Edward  I 

III  died,  but  no  attempt  was  made  to  dispute 
Edward's  succession.  He  was  the  first  truly  English  king 
since  the  Norman  conquest.  He  was  tall,  with  fair  hair  and 
red  cheeks,  and  he  had  no  liking  either  for  foreign  favorites 
or  foreign  ways.  He  opposed  papal  interference  in  English 
state  affairs,  and  joined  Philip  the  Fair  of  France  in  resisting 
Pope  Boniface  VIII,  as  the  next  chapter  will  tell.  His  reign 
( 1 272-1 307)  showed  that  the  government  of  England  was 
henceforth  to  be  controlled  neither  by  an  absolute  monarch 
nor  by  an  oligarchy  of  nobles,  but  by  a  sovereign  whose 
power  was  limited  by  the  permanent  existence  of  a  national 
representative  and  legislative  body. 

Edward  adopted  De  Montfort's  scheme  of  summoning 


484        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

both  townsmen  and  knights  of  the  shire  to  his  legislative 
p   ..  assemblies,  and  these  two  groups  of  men  came 

completely  to  make  up  the  House  of  Commons,  composed  of 
e\e  ope  representatives  of  the  localities,  while  the  House 
of  Lords  included  only  the  prelates  and  great  nobles  who 
received  a  special  summons  from  the  king.  We  first  hear  of 
the  two  houses  sitting  apart  in  1332  early  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.  Historians  have  often  called  an  assembly  sum- 
moned by  Edward  I  in  1295  the  Model  Parliament,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  the  first  body  legally  summoned  by  the 
king  which  represented  all  classes  fully.  It  contained  two 
representatives  from  each  of  one  hundred  and  ten  boroughs 
instead  of  from  only  twenty-one  towns  as  in  the  case  of  De 
Montfort's  Parliament.  There  were  two  knights  from  each 
of  thirty-seven  shires,  ninety  bishops  and  abbots,  and  forty- 
one  barons.  But  there  were  also  various  representatives 
of  the  lower  clergy,  —  deans,  archdeacons,  and  delegates 
chosen  by  the  parish  priests.  These  lower  clergy  had  not 
been  summoned  by  De  Montfort  and  they  soon  disappeared 
from  subsequent  Parliaments,  so  that  in  its  inclusion  of 
them  the  Parliament  of  1295  was  scarcely  a  true  model. 

Edward  was  a  great  legislator  and  issued  many  statutes 
during  his  reign.  Some  of  them  reformed  or  amended  the 
police  and  judicial  systems;  others  restricted 
feudal  tendencies,  the  jurisdiction  of  ecclesi- 
astical courts,  and  the  passing  of  landed  property  into  the 
hands  of  the  clergy.  The  term  "statute"  came  to  indicate 
a  law  promulgated  by  the  king  to  which  both  houses  of 
Parliament  had  agreed.  In  the  following  reign  of  Edward  II, 
after  a  period  of  civil  war  between  the  Crown  and  the  barons 
and  another  unsuccessful  attempt  by  the  latter  to  manage 
the  government  themselves,  the  principle  was  reaffirmed 
that  all  royal  and  national  matters  "shall  be  treated,  ac- 
corded, and  established  in  parliament  by  the  king  and  the 
council  of  the  prelates,  earls,  barons,  and  the  commonalty 
of  the  realm." 

Edward's  wars  with  the  Welsh  and  Scots,  of  which  we 
shall  speak  at  the  end  of  this  chapter,  and  his  frequent 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND       485 

fights  with  the  Capetian  king  In  Gascony  and  Flanders, 
were  expensive  and  he  often  had  to  appeal  to  p  ,. 
Parliament  for  funds.  The  king  had  a  certain  financial 
regular  income  from  his  crown  lands  or  private  ^^""""'^^ 
estates,  from  fees  and  fines,  feudal  incidents,  and  from  his 
right  of  coinage,  his  forest  rights,  and  his  superior  claim  to 
such  finds  as  hidden  treasure  and  wreckage.  He  also  might 
raise  money  by  selling  honors  and  offices,  or  by  negotiations 
with  the  Jews  and  foreign  merchants.  But  If  he  wished 
to  levy  any  direct  tax  upon  the  property  of  his  subjects,  he 
had  to  get  the  consent  of  Parliament.  Edward,  it  Is  true, 
when  he  found  Parliament  penurious,  sometimes  took  taxes 
without  its  consent.  But  the  members  wef e  sure  to  complain 
of  such  conduct  when  next  he  appealed  to  them  for  financial 
aid.  In  1297  they  Insisted  that  he  confirm  the  Great  Charter 
and  promise  that  henceforth  he  would  take  no  "aids,  tasks, 
or  prises"  without  their  consent.  Thus  Parliament  early 
maintained  Its  control  over  the  purse. 

Edward  II,  a  young  man  fond  of  frivolity  and  of  low  life, 
was  disgracefully  defeated  by  the  Scots  at  Bannockburn  in 
1314  and  displayed  no  capacity  as  a  ruler.    He  Edward  11 
was  the  prey  of  greedy  and  insolent  favorites,  mJlit^^his^' 
and  early  offended  the  chief  nobles  of  his  realm,  deposition 
As  a  result  his  reign  was  full  of  disloyalty,  civil  war,  and 
anarchy.     But  the  discontented  barons  used  Parliament 
against  him,  and  he,  whenever  for  a  time  he  recovered  his 
power,  employed  Parliament  against  them.    Parliament,  it 
must  be  admitted,  was  subservient  to  whosoever  happened 
to  be  in  power  for  the  moment,  but  on  the  other  hand, 
neither  side  In  the  struggle  could  dispense  with  this  national 
assembly.    So  Parliament  was  active  throughout  the  reign, 
and  finally  in  1327  it  deposed  Edward  II  and  chose  his  son 
to  reign  in  his  stead  as  Edward  HI. 

To-day  the  House  of  Commons  is  supreme  in  the  English 
Parliament,  but  at  this  time  the  Lords  took  the  lead  in 
resisting  the  royal  power  or  initiating  new  legls-  Lords  and 
latlon.  However,  the  Commons  occasionally  ven-  Commons 
tured  to  submit  humble  petitions  of  their  own.    These,  if 


486        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

accepted  by  the  Lords  and  King,  would  become  regular 
statutes  of  the  realm,  although  their  wording  might  be  con- 
siderably altered  from  that  of  the  original  petitions.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  the  knights  from  the  shires,  though  less 
numerous  than  the  burgesses,  were  more  influential  and 
received  twice  as  large  salaries.  The  English  towns  were 
still  small  at  this  time. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  knights  had  become  detached 
from  the  nobility  and  were  simply  the  elected  representa- 
Transforma-  tives  of  the  freemen  holding  lands  in  the  shires. 
knrhtV^d  ^^^  knights  were  ceasing  to  live  the  fighting 
into  coun-  Careers  of  the  typical  feudal  noble  and  were  be- 
try  gentry  coming  simply  the  more  prosperous  landowners 
in  the  counties.  Indeed,  many  such  men  were  never  for- 
mally knighted,  so  that  it  became  increasingly  difficult  to 
secure  knights  as  shire  members  and  the  government  often 
had  to  be  content  with  ordinary  freemen.  One  of  Edward  I's 
legislative  measures,  known  as  "  Distraint  of  Knighthood," 
provided  that  all  freeholders  whose  land  yielded  an  income 
of  twenty  pounds  sterling  a  year  must  become  knights  or 
pay  a  fine.  But  mciny  preferred  to  pay  the  fine  and  remain 
simple  esquires.    Being  a  knight  was  still  more  expensive. 

Serfs  and  villeins  could  neither  be  elected  to  Parliament 
nor  vote  for  members.  Their  place  was  on  the  manor  where 
The  unfree  they  were  subject  to  the  rulings  of  their  lord  in 
classes  ^j^g  private  manorial  court.   The  common  law  of 

the  royal  courts  was  not  for  them.  The  manorial  system, 
however,  had  never  been  universal  or  complete  in  England, 
and  some  of  its  features  were  disappearing  by  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  Payments  in  kind  and  the  performance 
of  personal  service  on  the  lord's  demesne  lands  were  being 
largely  replaced  by  money  payments  of  corresponding  value. 
Men  who  legally  were  villeins  bound  to  the  manor,  in  actual 
practice  were  moving  about  from  place  to  place  working  for 
wages  as  hired  agricultural  laborers. 

In  its  general  civilization  thirteenth-century  England  was 
in  large  measure  indebted  to  the  Continent,  yet  in  some 
respects  peculiar.     The  friars  appeared  in  England  soon 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND       487 

after  their  foundation,  and  English  churches  and  universities 
formed  one  rehgious  and  scientific  world  with  English 
the  clergy  and  schools  of  the  Continent.  Eng-  civilization 
land,  however,  produced  an  unusual  number  of  thirteenth 
learned  writers,  some  of  whom  displayed  marked  '^^"^"''y 
originality.  After  the  Norman  period  the  English  developed 
their  own  style  of  Gothic  architecture,  called  "  Early  Eng- 
lish." Owing  to  the  decay  and  transformation  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  literature  and  language,  England  had  no  national 
literature  worthy  of  the  name  until  the  second  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  most  writing  was  in  French  or 
Latin.    England  was  a  wealthy  country  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  but  its  towns  were  small  compared  to  those  across 
the  Channel  and  not  so  far  advanced  in  industry  and  com- 
merce. 

While  England  was  developing  national  unity,  the  other 
peoples  of  the  British  Isles  —  Welsh,  Scots,  and  Irish  —  re- 
mained independent.  Neither  the  Anglo-Saxons  i^^i^^^ 
nor  the  Normans  had  succeeded  in  conquering  Scotland, 
them.  But  they  lacked  any  strong  political 
union  among  themselves,  and  in  civilization  fell  behind 
England  which  was  richer  and  nearer  to  the  Continent. 
Henry  II,  not  content  with  his  other  extensive  Continental 
possessions  outside  England,  invaded  Ireland  and  received 
the  submission  of  various  native  chiefs,  while  John,  to  com- 
pensate for  the  lands  that  he  had  lost  across  the  Channel, 
tried  to  introduce  English  law  and  government  throughout 
Ireland.  He  did  not  thoroughly  subdue  the  country,  how- 
ever, and  during  the  remainder  of  the  medieval  period  the 
land  was  in  constant  turmoil  and  disorder,  and  the  author- 
ity of  the  English  king  was  at  most  times  limited  to  a  small 
area  around  Dublin. 

Kings  of  Celtic  race  had  gradually  acquired  a  certain 
authority  over  all  Scotland.  At  times  they  had  recognized 
the  overlordship  of  the  English  kings,  but  it  was  not  until 
1 29 1  that  Edward  I  took  advantage  of  a  disputed  succession 
to  the  Scotch  throne  to  try  to  bring  that  country  really 
under  his  rule.  As  a  result  the  Scots  formed  an  alliance  with 


488        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

France  against  England  which  was  to  be  often  renewed  In 
the  course  of  the  later  Middle  Ages.  The  Scottish  patriot 
leader,  Wallace,  was  captured  and  cruelly  executed  in  1305, 
but  Robert  Bruce  continued  the  struggle  against  annexa- 
tion, Edward  II  was  decisively  defeated  at  Bannockburn, 
and  Scotland  remained  an  independent  country, 

Edward  I  was  more  successful  against  Wales,  which  he 
subjugated  and  divided  into  shires  in  English  fashion,  but 
to  which  he  did  not  grant  representation  in  Parliament. 
The  Welsh  revolted  several  times  against  English  rule  dur- 
ing the  later  Middle  Ages,  but  without  success,  and  the 
oldest  son  of  the  English  king  has  borne  the  title  Prince  of 
Wales  ever  since  the  reign  of  Edward  I. 

It  should  not  be  thought  that  England  alone  among 
medieval  lands  possessed  parliamentary  institutions.  In 
Medieval  most  States  of  western  Europe  there  developed 
representa-     from  the  feudal  courts  of  the  great  lords,  whether 

tive  assem-  .  ,  ,      . 

biies  outside  kmgs  or  dukes  or  counts,  tax-grantmg  and  legis- 
Engiand  lative  bodies  representing  the  three  "  estates"  of 
clergy,  feudal  landed  nobility,  and  townsmen.  Such  assem- 
blies existed  in  Normandy,  Vermandois,  Brittany,  Artois, 
Burgundy,  Aragon,  Valencia,  Catalonia,  and  elsewhere. 
The  Cortes  or  "Courts"  of  Aragon  embraced  four  instead 
of  three  estates,  since  the  nobles  divided  into  great  and 
small  like  the  English  barons  and  knights  of  the  shire. 
National  sentiment  made  itself  felt  in  Aragon  in  a  united 
protest  of  the  estates  against  Peter  IPs  submission  to 
Innocent  III  ten  years  before  the  English  barons  forced 
their  king,  John,  another  of  Innocent's  vassals,  to  sign 
Magna  Carta.  In  Aragon  as  in  England  the  Cortes  came  to 
insist  that  their  grievances  must  be  redressed  before  they 
would  grant  the  king  taxes,  and  no  law  could  be  enacted 
without  the  consent  of  all  four  estates.  The  King  of  Den- 
mark in  1250  called  representatives  of  the  towns  to  his  coro- 
nation assembly  (Reichstag).  He  died  on  a  campaign 
against  Frisian  peasants  who  had  refused  to  pay  a  new 
tax  called  the  "Plough-Penny."  His  successors  during  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  had  to  consent  at  the 


NATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND       489 

time  of  their  election  to  such  conditions  as  annual  parlia- 
ments and  no  arbitrary  imprisonment. 

But  most  of  these  other  medieval  states  were  smaller  than 
England;  most  of  them  were  in  the  course  of  time  to  lose 
their  independence  and  become  absorbed  into  the  larger 
European  states  of  later  times ;  in  most  of  them  the  medieval 
representative  assemblies  ultimately  disappeared  or  sank 
into  insignificance.  Only  in  England  was  a  parliament 
founded  in  the  Middle  Ages  destined  to  lead  a  healthy  and 
continuous  existence  into  modern  times  and  down  to  the 
present  day,  and  furnish  a  model  for  other  nations  which 
have  reintroduced  parliamentary  government  in  the  last 
century.  England  also  was  the  only  large  state  to  emerge 
from  the  Middle  Ages  with  a  unified  national  law. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

The  Common  Law. 

Maitland,  The  Constitutional  History  of  England,  pp.  1-23. 
Chambers,  Constitutional  History  of  England,  pp.  286-301. 
White,  The  Making  of  the  English  Constitution,  pp.  220-38. 

Magna  Carta. 
Adams  and  Stephens,  Select  Documents  of  English  Constitutional  History, 
pp.  42-52.  Note  the  numbers  of  the  articles  dealing  with  each  of  the 
following  points  and  briefly  summarize  their  contents:  (i)  feudalism; 
(2)  forests;  (3)  Church;  (4)  common  council;  (5)  judicial  procedure; 
(6)  trade  and  industry;  (7)  freedom  of  the  subject  from  oppression. 
Omit  those  articles  which  deal  with  Wales  and  Scotland  or  with  mat- 
ters of  no  lasting  importance.  How  are  the  provisions  of  the  charter 
to  be  enforced? 

Origin  of  Parliament,  especially  the  House  of  Commons. 

Maitland,  pp.  64-75;  Chambers,  pp.  167-80;  White,  pp.  298-325;  Med- 
ley, English  Constitutional  History,  sections  19-20. 

Reigns  of  Edward  I  and  Edward  II. 

Cross,  A  History  of  England  and  Greater  Britain,  pp.  166-81. 
Stubbs,  Constitutional  History  of  England,  sections  248,  250-55. 
(The  standard  work  on  the  medieval  English  constitution.) 

The  Spanish  Cortes. 

Hallam,  View  of  the  State  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages;  such  parts  of 
chap.  IV,  "The  History  of  Spain  to  the  Conquest  of  Granada,"  as 
bear  upon  this  topic.  (A  pioneer  work,  now  old-fashioned,  but  the 
first  sympathetic  treatment  of  medieval  civilization  in  English.) 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE 

The  France  of  whose  brilliant  civilization  we  have  al- 
ready treated  in  several  chapters  was  not  yet  a  nation,  but 
Union  of  a  land  of  ambitious  feudal  lords  and  enterprising 
thnnieh  communes.     It  was  still  a  congeries  of  distinct 

the  king  peoples  and  even  its  nobles  were  divided  into 
groups  according  to  locality.  By  the  thirteenth  century, 
however,  the  royal  power  began  to  make  great  strides. 
Many  districts  which  formerly  had  been  practically  inde- 
pendent feudal  states  now  came  under  the  king's  authority. 
But  before  a  given  region  passed  under  royal  control,  it 
often  had  evolved  distinct  customs  and  legal  usages  of  its 
own  and  also  a  representative  assembly  of  the  estates  of 
that  locality.  As  the  king  gradually  extended  his  lordship 
over  such  feudal  areas,  he  left  to  each  its  local  customs  and 
often  granted  numerous  charters  assuring  the  ancient  privi- 
leges of  this  or  that  town  or  abbey  or  provincial  group  of 
nobles.  Thus  each  part  of  France  was  governed  in  a  slightly 
different  way  from  its  neighbor  and  no  common  law  like 
that  of  England  was  created.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was 
little  united  action  in  opposition  to  the  French  king,  who 
signed  no  such  general  and  sweeping  concession  as  Magna 
Carta.  The  local  charters  which  he  did  sign  were  easier 
for  him  after  a  time  to  disregard  or  to  take  away,  since  in 
each  case  only  a  certain  district  or  group  of  persons  was  con- 
cerned to  defend  the  charter.  Thus  in  the  end  the  French 
monarchy  became  more  arbitrary  and  absolute  than  the 
English.  England  became  a  strong  nation  through  its  law 
and  Parliament  and  constitutional  government.  But  in 
France  the  king  and  his  court  and  officials  were  the  chief 
force  uniting  the  different  provinces,  lords,  and  communes, 
and  welding  them  at  last  into  one  people.  All  those  small 
nationalities  of  the  feudal  world  were  ultimately  swallowed 


THE  GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE    491 

up  by  the  conquering  Capetians,  except  Flanders  which 
survives  in  the  Belgium  of  to-day. 

There  were  reasons  for  the  growth  of  the  Capetian  mon- 
archs  at  the  expense  of  the  feudal  lords.  First,  the  kings 
had  the  advantage  of  a  superior  title;  they  were  Reasons  for 
the  successors  of  Charlemagne,  and  were  over-  of^rovar*^^ 
lords  where  the  others  were  merely  lords.  Sec-  power 
ond,  their  unbroken  succession  in  the  direct  male  line,  with 
few  minorities  and  regencies  from  987  to  1328,  enabled  them 
to  outlive  most  of  the  feudal  dynasties,  to  regain  much 
feudal  territory  either  by  escheat  or  by  intermarriage  and 
inheritance,  or  at  least  to  see  the  power  of  their  rivals  weak- 
ened by  long  regencies  of  widows  or  by  struggles  over  the 
succession  to  those  fiefs.  Third,  the  evolution  of  an  efficient 
and  centralized  administration  in  place  of  the  clumsy  gov- 
ernmental machinery  of  the  feudal  court.  Fourth,  the  able 
personalities  and  energetic  reigns  of  several  kings  after 
Louis  VI  in  contrast  to  the  feeble  Capetians  who  preceded 
him.  Fifth,  the  many  opportunities,  of  which  the  kings  were 
usually  quick  to  take  advantage,  for  alliances  with  the  pope, 
clergy,  communes,  or  sub-vassals  against  the  great  feudal 
lords  —  or  with  the  nobility  of  one  part  of  France  against 
those  of  another  as  in  the  Albigensian  Crusade.  The  King 
of  France  was  called  "the  first  son  of  the  Church"  and  in 
attacking  its  enemies  usually  gained  something  for  himself. 

Already  in  the  twelfth  century  the  kings  began  to  take 
the  advice  of  councilors  of  their  own  choice  in  place  of  the 
vassals  who  owed  them  feudal  court  attendance.  Elaboration 
and  to  fill  their  offices  with  men  of  more  educa-  tra^l'rovern- 
tion  like  the  clergy,  or  of  especial  legal  training  ment 
like  the  students  of  Roman  law  at  Bologna,  or  of  better 
business  ability  like  the  townsmen.   These  made  more  cap- 
able and  more  faithful  officials  than  the  feudal  warriors  and 
were  able  to  give  all  their  time  to  the  royal  service,  if  the 
king  could  find  the  money  for  their  salaries.  With  the  addi- 
tion of  this  trained  administrative  class  came  also  a  greater 
specialization  in  government.  The  old  feudal  and  ceremonial 
household  offices  gradually  disappeared  and  the  much  more 


492        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

numerous  new  royal  officials  came  to  divide  into  three  chief 
central  bodies:  the  Council  of  State  corresponding  to  the 
Privy  Council  in  England,  the  Chamber  of  Accounts 
{Chambre  des  Comptes)  similar  to  the  English  Exchequer, 
and  the  Parlement  or  royal  court  of  justice  which  was  equiv- 
alent to  the  three  English  central  courts  of  common  law. 
The  kings  also  created  new  officials  called  haillis,  who  were 
much  like  the  missi  of  Charlemagne  or  the  itinerant  justices 
of  Henry  II  of  England,  and  who  traveled  about  overseeing 
the  prevdts  (provosts)  or  royal  agents  in  the  localities,  who 
resembled  the  English  sheriffs.  By  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  each  bailli  was  assigned  a  definite  territory, 
but  they  were  frequently  transferred.  The  king  also  began 
to  hire  troops  instead  of  depending  upon  feudal  military 
service. 

Our  account  of  feudal  France  In  chapter  fourteen  ended 
with  the  successful  reign  of  Louis  the  Fat,  who  completely 
Reign  of  mastered  the  territory  immediately  about  Paris 
Louis  VII  ^j^^  forced  even  the  rulers  of  distant  Auvergne 
and  Aquitaine  to  recognize  his  overlordship.  His  son, 
Louis  VH,  however,  did  little  more  than  hold  his  own  during 
a  long  reign  from  1 137  to  1 180,  It  is  true  that  he  established 
friendly  relations,  which  were  valuable  later,  with  some  of 
the  feudal  and  ecclesiastical  lords  in  what  is  now  south- 
eastern and  southwestern  France,  when  he  passed  through 
those  regions  upon  pilgrimages  to  the  monastery  of  the 
Grande  Chartreuse  in  the  Alps  and  to  the  shrine  of  St.  James 
at  Compostella  In  Spain.  But  he  left  his  realm  and  wasted 
troops  and  treasure  on  the  Second  Crusade,  and  he  made 
the  grave  political  error  of  divorcing  his  capricious  wife, 
Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  although  he  loved  her  Immoderately. 
She  thereupon  married  the  young  Count  of  Anjou  who  soon 
became  Henry  II  of  England,  and  whose  great  Plantagenet 
empire  became  an  extreme  menace  to  the  Capetian  mon- 
archy. Louis,  however,  succeeded  In  preventing  Henry 
from  adding  Toulouse  to  his  vast  holdings,  and  he  stirred 
up  a  deal  of  trouble  for  him  with  his  sons  and  vassals. 

The  medieval  King  of  France  who  probably  most  In- 


THE  GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE    493 

creased  the  royal  power  and  territory  was  Philip  II,  or 
Augustus,  during  his  long  reign  of  forty-three  j^  .  , 
years  from  1 180  to  1223.  Of  his  participation  Philip 
in  the  Third  Crusade,  and  his  relations  with  "^"^  "^ 
Richard  and  John,  Kings  of  England,  and  with  Pope  Inno- 
cent III,  we  have  already  spoken.  At  his  accession  "the 
feudal  aristocracy  was  still  the  great  territorial  and  political 
power  on  French  soil.  At  his  death  the  situation  had  been 
completely  reversed"  and  the  monarchy  prevailed.  The 
chronicler  Rigord  gave  him  the  epithet  "Augustus"  of  the 
old  Roman  emperors,  partly  because  Philip  was  born  in 
August,  but  more  because  he  believed  the  word  derived 
from  the  verb  augeo  and  because  Philip  had  so  augmented 
the  territory  and  power  of  the  French  monarchy.  Another 
contemporary  called  him  "Karolides,"  or  "descendant  of 
Charlemagne,"  and  a  fourteenth-century  poet  named  him 
"  Philip  the  Conqueror."  For  a  long  time  it  had  seemed  that 
his  father,  Louis  VII,  would  leave  no  male  heir  to  succeed 
him,  and  twenty-one  years  passed  after  he  had  first  been 
married  before  his  third  wife  bore  an  heir  to  the  throne. 
Thomas  Becket,  then  an  exile  under  Louis  VII's  protection, 
tells  how  darkly  Henry  II  of  England  scowled  when  he  first 
saw  this  young  prince  —  then  aged  four  —  who  was  des- 
tined to  make  himself  and  his  sons  so  much  trouble  and  to 
take  from  John  most  of  the  vast  Plantagenet  fiefs  in  France. 
Little  Philip  showed  his  precocious  ability  by  a  speech  which 
he  made  to  the  Plantagenet  king  on  this  occasion;  but  he 
had  scant  time  to  receive  an  ordinary  education;  his  life 
from  his  early  teens  was  absorbed  in  practical  politics  and 
wars.  He  turned  out  to  be  an  able  warrior  and  military 
engineer,  especially  in  conducting  sieges.  Even  more  was 
he  a  wily  diplomat,  quite  unscrupulous  about  breaking 
promises  that  were  not  to  his  advantage,  and  this  in  rela- 
tions with  his  own  people  as  well  as  in  foreign  affairs. 

Philip  added  to  the  royal  domain  about  Paris  and  the 
province  of  BerrI,  in  which  had  consisted  the  pos-  Territorial 
sessions  of  Louis  VII,  all  the  territory  between  acquisitions 
Flanders  and  Champagne  on  the  north  and  east  and  Brit- 


494        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

tany  and  the  Loire  on  the  west  and  south,  including  Nor- 
mandy, Maine,  Anjou,  and  several  other  districts.  Indeed, 
he  had  some  lands  south  of  the  Loire  in  Poitou  and  Saintonge 
as  well  as  Touraine  and  Berri.  These  gains  were  made 
chiefly  from  King  John  of  England  and  from  the  Count  of 
Flanders.  The  number  of  royal  prevots  had  to  be  increased 
from  thirty-eight  to  ninety-four  to  administer  this  greatly 
enlarged  royal  domain.  Philip  also  increased  his  influence 
as  feudal  overlord  in  regions  not  directly  under  his  control, 
interfering  in  feudal  marriages  and  the  garrisoning  of  cas- 
tles, and  confirming  legal  transactions  between  the  lords 
and  their  sub-vassals  or  towns  or  serfs.  Many  lords,  espe- 
cially ecclesiastical  ones,  now  began  to  share  their  fiefs  or 
"go  half-and-half"  with  the  king.  This  practice  generally 
resulted  in  the  long  run  in  royal  annexation  of  the  entire 
fief  in  question. 

Philip  was  a  great  amasser  of  treasure  and  always  had  a 
surplus  on  hand  for  emergencies.  One  contemporary  com- 
Financial  plains  of  his  financial  oppression.  The  extension 
resources  ^f  j^jg  j-Qy^l  domain  and  feudal  overlordship 
greatly  increased  his  financial  resources  and  the  revenue 
doubled  in  the  course  of  his  reign.  The  growing  towns  on  his 
domain  supplied  him  with  militia  for  his  wars  or  paid  him 
sums  of  money.  Louis  VII  had  been  more  favorable  to  the 
gilds  and  communes  than  Louis  VI,  and  Philip  yet  further 
encouraged  towns  and  trade.  Their  representatives  appear 
in  his  reign  in  all  assemblies,  together  with  the  clergy  and 
feudal  nobles.  He  not  only  paved  the  streets  of  Paris,  en- 
larged the  circuit  of  its  walls,  increased  the  number  of  its 
markets,  and  improved  its  police  force;  he  even  put  bour- 
geois of  Paris  on  the  council  of  regency  during  his  absence  on 
crusade.  But  he  usually  protected  the  jurisdiction  and  prop- 
erty of  the  clergy  in  the  towns  against  the  communes.  In 
return  for  such  protection,  however,  he  felt  at  liberty  to 
squeeze  a  good  many  contributions  from  church  cofi"ers. 
He  made  use  of  the  Templars  as  bankers  and  sometimes 
of  the  Jews. 

The  brief  reign  of  Louis  VIII  was  memorable  chiefly  for 


THE  GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE    495 

his  paving  the  way  for  the  extension  of  the  royal  power  into 
southern  France  by  his  participation  in  the  wars  .  .  ^.j, 
against  the  Albigensians.  He  died  of  dysentery  and  Blanche 
on  the  way  home,  leaving  a  son  of  only  twelve  °  ^^^^  ^ 
years  to  succeed  him.  This  seemed  a  fine  chance  for  the 
King  of  England  to  recover  some  of  his  lost  possessions  and 
for  the  French  vassals  to  revolt.  Several  coalitions  were 
formed  by  the  feudal  lords,  who  had  come  to  see  that  it  was 
hopeless  for  them  to  struggle  singly  against  the  royal  power. 
But  all  such  efforts  were  thwarted  by  Blanche  of  Castile, 
the  widowed  queen-mother,  a  very  religious  and  also  very 
energetic  woman,  who  ruled  the  realm  with  a  firm  hand 
until  her  son  attained  his  majority.  Indeed,  she  continued 
to  influence  his  government  until  her  death  in  1253  while 
he  was  away  on  a  crusade. 

Louis  IX  (1226-1270)  was  a  dutiful  son  in  whose  educa- 
tion the  rod  had  not  been  spared  and  whose  mother  often 
told  him  that  she  would  rather  see  him  dead  ^    ^     . 

,  ,  ,  .  .  1     •         T  ^t.  Louis 

than  have  him  commit  a  mortal  sin.  In  conse- 
quence he  led  such  a  holy  life  that  he  was  canonized  before 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  we  shall  henceforth 
speak  of  him  as  St.  Louis.  His  personal  beauty  became 
almost  angelic  in  the  eyes  of  contemporaries  because  of  the 
pure  life  and  piety  that  lay  behind  it.  He  wore  a  hair-cloth 
shirt  and  rose  at  midnight  for  matins  like  a  monk.  He 
attended  many  early  masses,  was  fond  of  hearing  sermons, 
and  read  much  religious  literature.  He  fasted  punctiliously, 
every  Friday  he  went  to  confession,  and  sometimes  had 
himself  whipped  with  small  chains.  He  entertained  paupers 
at  his  table,  and  washed  the  feet  of  the  poor,  or  even,  like 
St.  Francis,  waited  on  lepers.  His  eulogists  also  Inform  us 
that  despite  his  detestation  of  beer  he  drank  it  all  through 
Lent  in  place  of  wine.  His  penances,  however,  were  usually 
performed  in  private.  What  his  court  and  the  world  saw  in 
him  was  a  fearless  knight  thoroughly  trained  in  all  the  arts 
of  war;  an  enthusiast  for  the  crusading  movement;  a  con- 
scientious, just,  and  energetic  ruler,  who  was  usually  good- 
humored,  kindly,  and  courteous  in  speech  and  manner,  but 


496        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

at  times  became  impatient  and  angry;  who  in  later  life 
dressed  soberly,  but  who  was  always  dignified  and  some- 
times imperious.  Like  many  good  people  he  could  not  en- 
tirely refrain  from  admonishing  others  how  to  conduct 
themselves.  His  six  sons  and  five  daughters  stood  in  consid- 
erable awe  of  their  father,  with  whom  they  apparently  were 
not  on  very  intimate  terms,  although  he  gave  his  personal 
attention  to  their  education.  No  scandal  ever  disturbed 
the  strictly  moral  and  incorruptible  court  of  St.  Louis,  who 
insisted  that  all  his  servants  should  be  of  irreproachable 
character.  And  if  he  could  not  prevent  crime  and  irreligion 
in  his  kingdom,  he  could  at  least  severely  punish  such 
offenses. 

There  were  some  resemblances  between  the  reigns  of 
St.  Louis  and  of  his  contemporary,  Henry  III  of  England. 
Reign  of  Both  began  their  reigns  as  mere  boys ;  both  mar- 
pared  with  ried  daughters  of  Raymond  Berengar  of  Pro- 
$lr'^^°^TTT       vence;  and  their  brothers,  Richard  of  Cornwall 

Henry  III  ,    ^,       ,  r     a     •  •     i    i  •        i  •    i  i 

of  England  and  Charles  of  Anjou,  married  his  third  and 
fourth  daughters.  Both  Henr}^  and  Louis  were  religious 
and  peacefully  inclined.  They  had  conflicting  territorial 
claims  in  France ;  and  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily  was  offered  by 
the  pope  to  members  of  both  their  families.  Both  met  with 
sharp  opposition  from  the  feudal  nobility,  and  the  clergy  at 
this  time  in  both  France  and  England  protested  vigorously 
against  the  increasing  pressure  of  both  papal  and  royal 
taxation.  But  Henry  was  weak  in  character,  Louis  was 
strong,  although  a  certain  unsuspiciousness,  which  inclined 
him  to  believe  what  any  one  said,  was  at  times  abused  by 
unscrupulous  persons.  Henry's  wife  dominated  him,  while 
Louis  kept  the  upper  hand  of  her  equally  ambitious  and 
energetic  sister.  The  pope  made  a  cat's-paw  of  Henry  to 
pull  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  for  him;  but  Louis,  for  all  his 
piety,  would  not  yield  to  bishop  or  pope  when  he  believed 
himself  to  be  in  the  right.  Henry's  barons  were  often  suc- 
cessful in  their  revolts,  and  dictated  schemes  of  government 
to  him,  and  made  trouble  almost  to  the  end  of  his  reign.  The 
last  feudal  revolt  that  Louis  had  to  crush  was  in  1241-42, 


THE   GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER    IN   FRANCE    497 

when  the  lords  of  Poitou  joined  with  many  of  the  nobles  and 
towns  of  Gascony  and  Languedoc  against  him,  and  received 
support  from  Raymond  VII,  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  and 
the  Kings  of  England  and  Aragon. 

After  1243  there  were  no  more  feudal  risings  against 
Louis,  who  gave  good  and  strong  government  where  Henry 
III  and  his  foreign  favorites  were  guilty  of  mis-  Relations 
rule.  Louis  then  proceeded  to  broaden  the  juris-  anJfS-"'^^^  ' 
diction  of  the  royal  courts  at  the  expense  of  the  eign  powers 
feudal  tribunals  and  to  encourage  appeals  to  the  Parlement 
of  Paris,  to  do  away  with  the  wager  of  battle  in  trials  within 
his  own  domain  and  to  forbid  private  wars  the  realm  over. 
He  improved  the  royal  coinage  so  that  the  people  would 
prefer  it  to  that  of  the  feudal  lords,  and  he  forbade  the  cir- 
culation of  any  other  coins  in  his  own  domain,  but  could 
only  secure  that  his  coins  should  not  be  excluded  from  the 
fiefs  of  his  great  vassals  who  still  retained  the  right  of  coin- 
age within  their  own  territories.  Louis's  brothers  became 
lords  of  a  number  of  the  chief  feudal  states:  Robert  was 
Count  of  Artois  and  other  northern  provinces;  Alfonse  was 
Count  of  Poitou  and  Auvergne  and  heir  to  the  vast  County 
of  Toulouse;  Charles  of  Anjou  also  held  Maine  and  gained 
Provence  by  marriage  and  gradually  subjected  its  cities  and 
then  went  off  to  conquer  southern  Italy.  After  numerous 
hostilities,  truces,  and  long  negotiations,  Louis  made  with 
Henry  III  in  1259  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  by  which  Henry 
abandoned  all  claim  to  the  lost  provinces  of  Normandy, 
Anjou,  Touraine,  Maine,  and  Poitou,  while  Louis  surren- 
dered Guienne  and  Gascony  to  the  English  king,  who,  how- 
ever, was  to  be  his  vassal  for  these.  The  preceding  year 
Louis  had  made  the  Treaty  of  Corbeil  with  the  King  of 
Aragon,  settling  their  boundary  along  the  Mediterranean 
coast. 

Philip  HI,  who  was  too  devoted  to  the  Interests  of  his 
uncle,  Charles  of  Anjou,  and  of  the  pope,  pre-  pj^jj.    jjj 
pared  a  vast  expedition  to  punish  the  King  of  and 
Aragon  for  having  deprived  Charles  of  the  island       '  '^ 
of  Sicily,  but  the  undertaking  turned  out  a  complete  fail- 


498        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ure.  As  the  comparatively  unimportant  reign  of  Louis  VIII 
had  intervened  between  those  of  Philip  Augustus  and  St. 
Louis,  so  that  of  Philip  III  comes  between  the  more  momen- 
tous reigns  of  St.  Louis  and  Philip  the  Fair  (1285-1314). 
Philip  IV  was  a  good-looking  blond,  whence  his  epithet  of 
"the  Fair";  his  manners  and  conversation  were  refined;  he 
was  outwardly  religious;  but  we  hardly  know  whether  he  or 
his  legal  advisers  really  controlled  the  government.  At  any 
rate,  the  royal  power  was  now  further  developed;  the 
records  of  foreign  embassies  and  diplomacy  greatly  in- 
creased in  bulk;  and  the  amount  of  royal  taxation  and  ex- 
tortion multiplied.  Philip's  reign  is  further  notable  for  his 
relations  with  England  and  Flanders,  for  the  first  known 
session  of  the  Estates  General,  the  national  assembly  cor- 
responding to  the  English  Parliament,  and  for  his  struggle 
with  and  triumph  over  the  Papacy. 

Philip  the  Fair  resumed  the  policy  of  Philip  Augustus  of 
trying  to  bring  Flanders  and  the  Continental  possessions  of 
Situation  in  the  King  of  England  under  his  control.  Flanders, 
Flanders  with  its  large  towns  and  flourishing  industries 
and  trade,  was  of  great  economic  value  and  was  naturally 
coveted  by  the  French  king.  But  the  Flemish  towns  had 
close  economic  relations  with  England,  whence  they  ob- 
tained much  of  the  raw  wool  for  their  weaving  industries, 
and  whose  import  trade  too  they  largely  controlled.  Flan- 
ders, however,  was  divided  within  itself.  Besides  its  count 
there  were  rival  parties  in  the  communes  themselves.  As 
elsewhere  in  northern  France,  toward  the  close  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  there  were  uprisings  of  the  artisans  against 
the  few  rich  burghers  who  had  secured  control  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  municipal  government  and  distributed  all  the 
offices  and  favors  among  themselves,  while  they  not  only 
taxed  the  masses  heavily,  but  kept  wages  down  to  starva- 
tion rates.  This  caused  risings  against  the  ruling  class  in 
1280  and  1281  in  Bruges,  Ghent,  Tournai,  Ypres,  and  Douai 
in  Flanders,  as  well  as  in  some  towns  of  northern  France. 
In  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair  the  rich  burghers  and  employ- 
ers of  labor  looked  to  France  for  aid  and  the  workingmen  to 


THE  GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE    499 

England.    The  count  was  sometimes  on  one  side  and  some- 
times on  the  other. 

Philip  rather  than  Edward  I  was  the  aggressor  in  break- 
ing the  Peace  of  Paris  arranged  by  their  predecessors, 
St.  Louis  and  Henry  IIL  On  the  other  hand,  Wars  of 
it  was  Edward's  aggressions  against  Scotland  England' and 
which  led  that  country  to  form  the  alliance  with  Flanders 
France  which  was  renewed  again  and  again  through  the 
later  Middle  Ages.  I*n  the  third  place,  it  was  French  aggres- 
sion which  now  drove  the  Count  of  Flanders  into  an  Eng- 
lish alliance.  After  considerable  fighting  Edward  and  Philip 
made  peace  and  arranged  marriages  between  their  families, 
and  left  their  allies,  Flanders  and  Scotland,  to  each  other's 
mercies.  What  the  Scots  did  to  Edward  II  at  Bannockburn 
has  already  been  noted,  and  the  Flemish  artisans  treated 
the  French  in  very  similar  fashion.  In  1300  Philip  impris- 
oned the  Count  of  Flanders,  declared  that  fief  forfeit,  and 
occupied  the  country.  Two  years  later  in  the  "Matins  of 
Bruges"  the  French  were  massacred  as  they  had  been  in  the 
Sicilian  Vespers  twenty  years  before.  Uprisings  in  the  other 
towns  followed.  Then  in  the  battle  of  Courtrai  (1302)  the 
townsmen  successfully  withstood  the  charge  of  the  French 
chivalry.  The  conflict  is  also  called  the  "Battle  of  the 
Spurs,"  from  the  many  spurs  taken  from  the  fallen  French 
knights  and  hung  up  on  exhibition  in  the  cathedral  of 
Courtrai.  Indecisive  warfare  and  vain  attempts  at  treaties 
of  peace  then  occupied  many  years,  and  the  last  of  the  three 
sons  of  Philip  IV  also  made  war  upon  England  again. 

As  Edward  I's  wars  with  France  and  Scotland  forced  him 
to  appeal  to  the  English  Parliament  and  resort  to  other 
devices  to  secure  sufficient  revenue,  so  Philip's  .  j 

'^       Increased 

expensive  wars  with  England  and  Flanders  royal 
caused  him  to  adopt  all  sorts  of  methods  of  rais-  *^^^^'°" 
ing  money,  from  gifts  and  loans  which  he  seldom  repaid,  to 
direct  property  taxes  of  one,  two,  or  four  per  cent  on  the 
capital  and  five,  ten,  or  twenty  per  cent  on  income.  Some 
of  his  methods  were  ill-advised,  notably:  (i)  the  burden- 
some taxes  upon  trade  and  the  sale  of  commodities  (gabelles) 


50O        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

which  helped  bring  about  the  decline  of  the  once  flourishing 
fairs  of  Champagne;  (2)  the  depreciation  of  the  coinage; 
(3)  ruinous  measures  against  the  Lombards,  Jews,  and  Tem- 
plars, who  were  the  chief  bankers,  financiers,  and  capitalists 
of  the  time.  Of  his  treatment  of  the  Templars  we  shall 
speak  in  another  connection;  he  despoiled  and  exiled  the 
Jews;  the  Lombards,  too,  were  driven  out,  their  goods  were 
confiscated  and  debts  to  them  were  canceled  except  that 
the  principal  was  to  be  paid  to  the  Crown. 

Philip's  officials  found  it  no  easy  task  to  collect  the  direct 
taxes  upon  capital  and  income,  to  which  the  country  was  not 
yet  accustomed.  They  generally  allowed  the  feudal  lords 
to  collect  it  from  their  sub-vassals  and  keep  a  fraction  for 
themselves,  and  the  towns  to  compound  for  a  fixed  sum 
which  they  might  raise  from  their  citizens  by  any  assessment 
they  chose.  Those  who  strenuously  objected  to  the  tax 
were  assured  that  it  would  not  serve  as  a  precedent  and  that 
they  would  probably  never  again  be  called  on  to  contribute, 
if  they  would  help  the  king  in  his  dire  need  this  time.  Nobles 
who  refused  to  pay  were  mentioned  by  name  to  the  king. 
But  the  collectors  less  often  treated  with  individual  com- 
munes and  holders  of  fiefs  than  with  the  assembled  nobility 
and  town  representatives  of  an  entire  feudal  region.  In  this 
case  they  often  had  to  make  concessions  and  promises,  ex- 
pressed in  written  charters,  in  order  to  get  the  desired  grants 
of  money.  The  feudal  nobility  thus  regained  some  of  the 
privileges  of  which  St.  Louis  had  deprived  them,  and  various 
local  charters  were  granted.  The  Church,  too,  extracted 
charters  guaranteeing  its  liberties  in  return  for  the  contribu- 
tions which  it  was  forced  to  make  to  the  king ;  but  the  conces- 
sions made  were  so  qualified  by  reservations  or  so  vaguely 
expressed  that  the  king  seldom  observed  them  afterwards. 
And,  as  we  have  said  before,  no  document  like  the  Great 
Charter  was  forced  from  the  king  and  then  enforced  upon 
him  thereafter  by  united  action,  and  no  power  over  taxa- 
tion like  that  of  the  English  Parliament  was  acquired  by 
any  general  assembly  representing  the  French  nation. 

Such  an  assembly,  however,  now  came  into  existence. 


THE  GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE    501 

Hitherto  there  had  been  provincial  estates  of  Normandy, 
Artols,  Vermandois,  Burgundy,  and  so  on;  now.  The  Estates 
on  at  least  three  occasions  during  his  reign,  Philip  General 
the  Fair  summoned  the  Estates  General:  in  1302  to  secure 
general  support  in  his  conflict  with  Pope  Boniface  VIII,  in 
1308  against  the  Knights  Templars,  and  in  13 14  to  secure 
funds  for  a  war  in  Flanders.  To  this  gathering  were  sum- 
moned the  tenants-in-chlef  lay  or  clerical,  representatives  of 
the  towns,  and  also  of  the  cathedral  chapters  and  monas- 
teries. The  assembly  divided, not  into  Lords  and  Commons, 
but  Into  the  three  estates  of  clergy,  nobility,  and  townsmen. 
The  session  usually  lasted  only  a  day  and  there  was  no 
general  debate,  but  each  estate  was  free  to  submit  a 
cahier  or  list  of  grievances  for  the  king  to  remedy  if  he  saw 
fit.  In  1314  the  nobles  and  towns  joined  in  opposition  to 
a  gabelle  which  fell  heavily  upon  both  seller  and  buyer,  and 
secured  Its  withdrawal  and  the  promise  of  Improvement  in 
the  coinage.  But  the  Estates  General  was  not  destined  to 
gain  the  control  of  taxation  and  legislation  possessed  by  the 
English  Parliament.  There  was  no  obligation  upon  the  king 
to  call  it;  he  could  deal  instead  with  different  provincial 
estates  separately  and  keep  the  opposition  to  himself  di- 
vided. Moreover,  when  the  Estates  General  did  meet,  there 
was  a  lack  of  common  feeling  and  interests  and  action 
among  the  three  estates  which  seldom  agreed  upon  any 
united  program.  Perhaps  this  was  because  there  were  not 
great  lay  lords  and  bishops  grouped  together  in  one  body  as 
In  the  English  House  of  Lords,  nor  knights  and  townsmen 
associated  together  as  In  the  English  House  of  Commons. 
But  we  must  also  remember  the  greater  chasm  between 
feudalism  and  communes  In  France,  the  greater  size  of  the 
country,  and  the  greater  diversity  of  its  parts  in  their  local 
customs  and  recent  history.  It  should  be  added  that  the  so- 
called  Estates  General  usually  included  representatives  of 
northern  and  central  France  only;  the  southern  provinces 
insisted  upon  making  their  grants  through  their  own  Estates 
of  Languedoc. 

The  meetings  of  the  Estates  General  during  the  reign  of 


502        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Philip  the  Fair  were  entirely  under  his  control.  The  Estates 
Lack  of  called  during  the  brief  reigns  of  his  three  sons, 

J^pSkTn  Louis  X,  Philip  V,  and  Charles  IV,  were  in  the 
to  the  king  main  provincial  and  partial.  Local  leagues  of 
feudal  nobles  with  some  following  among  the  clergy  and 
communes  sprang  up  in  the  last  year  of  Philip  the  Fair's 
reign  against  new  taxes  which  he  had  introduced.  Some  of 
these  federations  even  extended  over  several  provinces,  and 
they  continued  into  the  reign  of  Louis  X.  But  they  did  not 
result  in  any  permanent  check  upon  the  royal  power. 
Charters  were  granted  by  Louis  X  to  the  nobles  in  a  number 
of  provinces,  but  the  concessions  made  were  intended  to 
preserve  old  feudal  customs  and  privileges  and  not  to  up- 
build any  new  national  and  popular  institutions.  And 
through  the  remainder  of  French  medieval  history  we  shall 
find  it  in  general  true  that,  while  there  is  occasional  opposi- 
tion to  the  Crown,  it  fails  to  put  itself  into  permanent  insti- 
tutional form. 

Philip  the  Fair  gave  the  supreme  proof  of  the  progress 
which  the  secular  royal  power  had  made  by  his  time  by 
p, ...     ,  refusing  to  admit  in  French   affairs  any  such 

Fair  and  theories  of  papal  overlordship  and  supremacy  in 
t  e  apacy  international  relations,  or  of  papal  interference 
in  the  internal  politics  of  the  realm,  as  the  popes  had  been 
maintaining  both  by  word  and  deed  since  the  days  of  Hilde- 
brand.  In  this  he  was  not  alone;  other  secular  rulers  of  his 
time  displayed  a  tendency  toward  greater  independence  from 
ecclesiastical  control  and  less  regard  for  papal  wishes  and 
threats;  and  they  were  supported  in  this  stand  by  their 
people.  The  State  was  at  last  becoming  more  powerful  than 
the  Church.  But  Philip  the  Fair  as  the  most  powerful 
monarch  of  his  age  naturally  went  the  furthest  in  opposition 
to  the  Papacy.  Indeed,  he  went  so  far  that  he  was  able  to 
make  a  pope  the  tool  of  his  policies.  Innocent  III  —  a  cen- 
tury before  —  had  found  Philip  Augustus  refractory  and 
independent;  Philip  the  Fair  was  to  find  Pope  Clement  V 
subservient  to  his  wishes. 

The  crisis  between  Church  and  State  was  precipitated  by 


THE  GROWTH  OF   ROYAL   POWER  IN   FRANCE    503 

the  pontificate  of  the  haughty  old  man,  Boniface  VIII 
(1294-1303),  who,  unmindful  of  the  growth  of  Boniface 
royal  power  and  of  national  states  and  of  their  ^^^^ 
increasing  hold  upon  the  people  during  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, tried  to  carry  still  further  the  ideals  of  ecclesiastical 
supremacy  of  Gregory  VII  and  Innocent  III.  He  seemed  to 
forget,  too,  that  his  own  personal  position  was  rather  pre- 
carious. In  the  first  place,  he  had  been  elected,  not  as  a 
result  of  the  death,  but  of  the  almost  unprecedented  resig- 
nation of  Celestine  V,  the  previous  pope,  — 

"  who  made  from  craven  heart  the  great  renunciation,"  — 

and  was  placed  by  Dante  among  those  souls  whom  both 
Heaven  and  Hell  rejected.  Second,  Boniface  had  quarreled 
with  the  powerful  Roman  family  of  the  Colonna  and  had 
ousted  two  of  its  members  from  their  posts  as  cardinals. 
Third,  he  had  offended  others  of  the  nobility  about  Rome  by 
building  up  a  strong  feudal  lordship  there  for  his  nephew, 
Peter  Gaetano. 

Boniface  not  only  annoyed  both  Philip  and  Edward  I  of 
England  by  trying  to  interfere  as  arbitrator  in  their  wars 
with  each  other  and  with  Flanders  and  Scotland,  cieHcis 
but  greatly  offended  them  by  his  bull,  Clericis  ^^^^°^ 
laicos,  in  1296,  which  forbade  the  clergy  to  pay  taxes  to  the 
State.  Edward  disregarded  the  bull  and  threatened  his 
clergy  with  outlawry  if  they  obeyed  it.  If  they  would  not 
contribute  to  the  support  of  the  State,  they  should  not  en- 
joy its  legal  protection.  Similarly  Philip  decided  that  if  the 
French  clergy  would  pay  him  no  taxes,  the  pope  and  other 
Italians  should  derive  no  income  from  France.  He  forbade 
the  export  of  any  money,  jewels,  food,  or  military  supplies 
from  his  kingdom,  but  ordered  all  foreigners  to  depart  at 
once,  leaving,  of  course,  their  property  and  business  and 
debtors  behind  them.  It  was  a  sign  of  Philip's  royal  power 
that  these  commands  were  strictly  executed.  Boniface  soon 
saw  —  or  felt  —  the  point,  and  explained  that  the  bull  was 
not  intended  to  apply  to  certain  classes  of  clergy,  nor  to 
prevent  any  clergy  from  helping  their  native  land  with 


504        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

contributions  in  a  time  of  dire  need.  The  pope  also  tried  to 
placate  Philip  by  other  measures,  among  them  the  canoni- 
zation of  St.  Louis,  and  the  king  thereupon  rescinded  his 
embargo  upon  the  flow  of  French  gold  to  Rome.  Boniface's 
partial  withdrawal  of  Clericis  laicos  did  not  fully  satisfy 
Philip,  however,  and  before  the  close  of  his  reign  he  had 
secured  from  the  pope's  successors  a  complete  exemption  of 
France  from  the  provisions  of  that  bull. 

Meanwhile  other  causes  of  disagreement  and  bitterness 
arose  between  Philip  and  Boniface.  The  Viscount  of  Nar- 
Renewal  of  bonne  did  homage  for  his  fief  to  the  king  instead 
the  conflict     gf  to  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne  as  his  pred- 

between  ^  *; 

pope  and        ecessors   had  been  accustomed  to  do,   while  a 
'"^  haughty  papal  legate  gave  Philip  great  offense  by 

his  demands.  Since  this  legate  was  ordinarily  the  Bishop  of 
Pamiers  in  southern  France,  when  his  legateship  expired 
and  he  returned  to  his  diocese,  Philip  had  him  seized  and 
tried  for  sedition,  heresy,  simony,  blasphemy,  disrespect 
to  royalty,  and  what-not.  This  seemed  an  outrage  to  the 
indignant  pope.  Moreover,  Boniface  had  been  made  over- 
confident of  the  support  of  Christendom  against  Philip  by 
the  success  of  the  Jubilee,  or  centenary  of  Christ's  birth, 
held  at  Rome  in  1300.  There  had  been  a  vast  concourse  of 
pilgrims  and  a  great  outpouring  of  gifts  to  the  Papacy. 
Accordingly^  in  the  bull,  Ausculta  fill  charissime  (December, 
1 301),  Boniface  demanded  the  bishop's  release  and  rendi- 
tion to  Rome,  where,  too,  he  summoned  the  clergy  to  con- 
sult with  him  how  the  excesses  of  the  French  monarch 
against  their  order  might  be  stopped.  He  also  asserted  the 
superiority  of  the  Papacy  over  all  kings  and  realms.  Early 
in  this  same  year  Edward  I  had  submitted  to  Parliament  a 
complaint  from  Boniface  against  his  occupation  of  Scotland 
and  a  contention  that  Scotland  was  a  fief  of  the  Papacy. 
Parliament  had  completely  repudiated  the  papal  claims. 
Philip  now  followed  this  example  and  in  1302  submitted  to 
the  Estates  General  a  garbled  version  of  Ausculta  fili,  which 
caused  that  assembly  to  sympathize  entirely  with  the  king. 
Philip  was  thus  assured  of  national  support  in  the  com- 


THE  GROWTH  OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE    505 

ing  struggle;  even  the  French  clergy  had  declared  in  his 
favor. 

The  pope  for  his  part  proceeded  to  hold  his  synod,  which 
some  French  clergy  attended  and  at  which  he  launched 
against  Philip  the  bull,  Unam  sanctam.  The  ^^^^ 
assertion  in  this  bull  that  it  was  necessary  to  sanctam 
their  salvation  that  all  human  beings  should  be  ^"  "^^"' 
under  the  Roman  pontiff  has  been  generally  regarded  as  the 
extreme  contention  of  papal  theory.  This  proud  declaration 
was  swiftly  followed  by  a  terrible  humiliation.  Nogaret,  one 
of  Philip's  advisers,  was  dispatched  to  Italy  with  instruc- 
tions to  seize  the  pope  and  bring  him  to  France  for  trial 
by  a  church  council  to  be  summoned  there.  Nogaret  was 
joined  by  the  Colonna  and  other  local  enemies  of  Boniface, 
while  no  secular  power  came  to  the  pope's  aid.  Boniface  had 
left  Rome  and  was  at  Anagni,  his  birthplace,  preparing  to 
excommunicate  Philip  and  free  the  French  from  their  alle- 
giance, when  Nogaret  and  his  confederates  entered  the  gates 
of  the  town  without  opposition.  When  the  pope  refused  to 
accept  their  terms,  which  included  the  restoration  of  the 
Colonna  family  and  his  resignation  from  the  Papacy  and 
captivity  in  France,  they  stormed  the  palaces  of  the  pope 
and  his  nephew,  and  took  Boniface  prisoner.  Although  in 
danger  of  his  life,  for  the  head  of  the  House  of  Colonna 
wished  to  kill  him,  the  old  man  bravely  persisted  in  refusing 
to  yield  an  inch  to  their  demands.  After  he  had  been  a 
prisoner  for  three  days  the  townsmen  of  Anagni  rose  and 
freed  him,  but  his  strength  and  spirit  were  broken  and  a 
month  later  he  died  at  Rome. 

This  was  not,  however,  the  first  time  that  violence  had 
been  done  a  pope  by  secular  rulers.  Philip's  strength  was 
manifested  more  in  the  fact  that  Boniface's  sue-  Subserviency 
cessors  took  no  steps  to  punish  the  French  king  y  to  Phmp 
for  the  outrage.  Benedict  XI,  who  reigned  for  the  Fair 
only  a  few  months,  excommunicated  Nogaret,  Sciarra  Co- 
lonna, and  eleven  of  their  associates,  but  displayed  a  concil- 
iatory spirit  toward  Nogaret's  master.  After  Benedict's 
death  eleven  months  passed  before  the  election  of  a  new 


5o6        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

pope  and  then  the  choice  of  the  cardinals  fell  upon  Philip's 
candidate,  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  who  became 
Clement  V  (1305-13 14).  Instead  of  taking  up  his  residence 
at  Rome,  Clement  was  crowned  at  Lyons,  a  city  which  six 
years  later  became  French  territory,  and  in  1309  he  came 
to  Avignon  on  the  Rhone,  where  the  popes  were  to  live  for 
nearly  seventy  years.  They  purchased  the  town  from  the 
Count  of  Provence  and  ruled  it  as  an  independent  prin- 
cipality. It  was  not  annexed  to  France  until  1791.  But 
Provence  was  under  the  rule  of  a  French  line,  the  House  of 
Anjou,  and  the  popes  at  Avignon  were  near  enough  to  the 
French  boundary  to  be  under  French  influence,  just  as 
Clement  himself  was  a  tool  of  Philip,  although  the  city  of 
Bordeaux  of  which  he  had  been  archbishop  belonged  to 
England.  Clement  named  many  new  cardinals,  among 
them  sixteen  from  his  native  Gascony  and  four  of  his  own 
family,  so  that  the  Italians  and  the  sympathizers  with  Boni- 
face were  outnumbered  in  the  college  of  cardinals.  Also 
Clement  and  Philip  together  despoiled  the  French  clergy, 
giving  all  the  choice  positions  in  the  French  churches  to 
their  own  favorites.  Finally  the  pope  even  freed  Nogaret 
from  excommunication,  restored  to  the  Colonna  family 
its  two  cardinalates,  and  abolished  the  Order  of  Knights 
Templars  at  Philip's  suggestion. 

Philip  owed  the  Templars  a  deal  of  money  and  coveted 
their  property  to  help  pay  for  his  expensive  wars.  The 
Fall  of  the  Knights  had  grown  wealthy  and  powerful  and 
Templars  ^^^  bccome  rather  unpopular.  Accordingly 
Philip  had  all  those  in  France  arrested  and  examined  by 
inquisitors.  A  number  of  shocking  charges  of  idolatry, 
irreligion,  and  immorality  were  trumped  up  against  them. 
The  use  of  torture  was  required  to  procure  confessions  in 
France,  and  those  who  confessed  to  such  acts  often  declared 
afterwards  that  they  had  spoken  falsehoods  under  pain  or 
fear  of  torture.  In  other  lands  like  England  and  Spain  the 
Templars  were  not  proved  guilty.  So  they  seem  to  have 
been  unjustly  condemned  in  France  and  Philip  to  have 
been  responsible  for  this.    Many  died  under  torture,  others 


THE   GROWTH   OF   ROYAL   POWER   IN   FRANCE   507 

starved  in  prison  awaiting  trial,  more  were  burned  at  the 
stake,  and  still  others  were  imprisoned  for  life.  The  Order 
was  dissolved  by  the  pope.  The  property  of  the  Templars 
was  supposed  to  be  handed  over  to  the  Papacy  to  transfer 
to  the  Knights  Hospitalers.  But  Philip  never  repaid  his 
debts  to  the  Templars,  seized  all  the  cash  that  they  had  on 
hand,  and  did  not  let  go  their  real  estate  until  his  death. 
Indeed,  in  place  of  turning  over  their  property  to  the 
Hospitalers,  he  presented  claims  for  the  payment  of  sums 
which  he  alleged  were  owed  him  by  the  Templars  and  for 
the  expense  which  he  had  incurred  in  keeping  them  in 
prison.  In  short,  so  far  as  France  was  concerned,  the 
Hospitalers  probably  lost  more  than  they  gained  by  the 
transfer  of  the  Templars'  property  to  them. 

This  chapter  has  thus  far  emphasized  the  growth  of  the 
royal  power  at  the  expense  of  the  Church  and  of  the  feudal 
system.  But  it  must  be  realized  that  much  of  Persistence 
the  ground  won  from  feudalism  was  not  thor-  ^^  feudalism 
oughly  subdued,  or  after  a  little  was  lost  and  had  to  be  re- 
gained later.  For  instance,  we  have  already  seen  Philip  the 
Fair  concede  again  to  the  nobility  some  of  the  feudal  cus- 
toms which  St.  Louis  had  forbidden.  Again,  many  fiefs 
which  escheated  to  the  Crown  or  which  came  to  it  by  con- 
quest or  marriage,  the  king  did  not  venture  to  incorporate 
at  once  in  his  domain  and  to  rule  directly  by  his  own  admin- 
istrative officials.  It  can  readily  be  imagined  that  a  region 
which  since  time  immemorial  had  been  under  a  ruling  dy- 
nasty of  its  own  would  not  care  to  give  up  suddenly  its 
count  and  court  and  local  customs,  and  instead  be  adminis- 
tered by  the  ignoble  and  unfeeling  agents  of  a  distant  king. 
Such  newly  acquired  territories  the  king  might  grant  as 
appanages  to  his  younger  sons  who  would  take  the  place  of 
the  previous  duke  or  count.  Such  appanages,  as  their  hold- 
ers with  succeeding  generations  became  less  and  less 
closely  related  to  the  Crown,  tended  to  become  again  dis- 
tinct feudal  states.  Instead  of  being  granted  again  as  fiefs  or 
appanages,  the  newly  acquired  territories  might  be  super- 
intended by  seneschals  instead  of  by  baillis  as  was  the  royal 


5o8        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

domain.  A  bailli  was  merely  a  royal  creature  and  agent;  the 
seneschal  was  some  local  noble  who  became  a  combination 
of  royal  agent  and  hereditary  feudal  lord.  When  Philip 
Augustus  won  so  much  territory  from  John,  he  put  senes- 
chals rather  than  baillis  over  the  lands  south  of  Normandy 
—  William  of  Roches  over  Anjou,  Maine,  and  Touraine,  and 
Aimeri,  Viscount  of  Thouars,  over  Poitou,  Saintonge,  and 
Guienne.  Moreover,  the  local  customs,  feudal  and  other- 
wise, of  different  parts  of  France  were  preserved  either  by 
guaranty  of  written  charter  or  simply  as  unwritten  customs 
without  saying  anything  about  it.  Finally,  while  mon- 
archy was  gradually  getting  the  better  of  feudalism  as  'a 
system  of  government,  the  feudal  land  system  with  its  fiefs 
and  manors,  and  the  feudal  social  system  with  its  knights 
and  nobles,  were  still  flourishing  in  France  of  the  early 
fourteenth  century,  where  it  had  now  become  the  rule  that 
there  was  no  "land  without  its  lord." 

It  would  be  hard  to  draw  a  definite  boundary  line  on  a 
map  for  the  French  monarchy  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Territorial  Philip  the  Fair  in  1 314  or  at  the  end  of  the  direct 
th?French  Capetians  in  1328.  It  would  also  not  be  easy  to 
monarchy  distinguish  sharply  between  the  royal  domain, 
fourtee^th^  the  possessions  of  great  feudal  lords  who  were 
century  nevertheless  loyal  enough  to  the  French  king  to 

be  reckoned  as  within  his  territory,  and  the  fiefs  of  those 
who,  like  the  King  of  England,  while  nominally  vassals  of 
the  King  of  France,  were  really  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
independent  sovereigns.  But  roughly  we  may  say  that 
Brittany,  although  brought  in  Philip  Augustus's  time  under 
a  younger  branch  of  the  Capetian  family,  and  the  English 
possessions  in  the  southwest  in  Guienne  and  Gascony  were 
quite  outside  of  the  French  king's  control,  as  was  the  city 
of  Montpellieron  the  Mediterranean  which  owned  the  juris- 
diction of  the  King  of  Aragon.  In  the  southeast  the  river 
Rhone  was  approximately  the  French  boundary.  To  the 
northeast  the  Count  of  Champagne  and  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy were  now  docile  vassals,  and  French  influence  had 
recently  been  pushed  yet  farther  east  in  Lorraine  and  the 


Lon-'itudi;     West       2° 


Lon^itinle      2^     East      from     Greenwich 


France  in  the  Early  Fourteenth 

Century 

Showing  the  chief  administrative  divisions 

Scale  of  miles 

0      20    -10     UU     80    100  200 

i       '*'   jTorjitorv  practicallj'indeiiendent  of  the  crown 

Routes  of  Edward  TV  and  Henry  V  in  the 

campai^'iis  Of  Crecy  and.  AgincouTt 


5IO        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

County  of  Burgundy.  Early  in  the  fourteenth  century  we 
are  fortunate  in  having  a  list  of  the  chief  administrative 
divisions  of  France.  In  southern  France  there  were  twelve 
seneschals  of  Poitou,  Saintonge,  Limousin,  Perigord,  Au- 
vergne,  the  mountains  of  Auvergne,  Querci,  Toulouse,  Albi- 
geois,  Rouergue,  Beaucaire,  and  Carcassonne.  Over  Nor- 
mandy were  five  baillis,  and  there  were  nine  others  in  the 
north,  at  Paris,  Senlis,  Vermandois,  Amiens,  Sens,  Orleans, 
Tours,  Bourges,  and  Macon. 

The  language  spoken  in  and  around  Paris  had  now  begun 
to  spread  over  the  rest  of  France,  supplanting  the  other  dia- 
Spread  of  lects.  It  had  already  become  recognized  as  the 
the  French  standard  literary  language  and  polite  speech  of 
anguage  ^^^  upper  classes,  and  it  also,  of  course,  was  the 
official  language  of  the  royal  government  and  court. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Compare  the  method  of  treating  the  period  from  1180  to  1328,  or  some 
one  reign  during  it,  employed  by  histories  of  France,  such  as  those  of 
Duruy,  Kitchin,  or  Masson,  with  that  of  the  above  chapter.  What 
subjects  treated  by  them  have  already  been  discussed  in  this  book 
in  other  chapters? 

"  Institutions  of  Capetian  Royalty,"  Bemont  and  Monod,  Medieval 
Europe  fromjQj  to  izyo  (English  translation),  chap,  xxvi,  pp.  421-44. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  366-75,  advice  of  St.  Louis 
to  his  son. 

For  those  who  read  French :  — 

E.  Lavisse,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  ni,  part  I,  by  A.  Luchaire. 

"  Bouvines,"  pp.  166-202. 

Vol.  ni,  part  ii,  by  Langlois. 

"Louis  IX  et  son  entourage,"  pp.  18-49. 

"  L'Administration  Centrale,"  pp.  322-39. 

"  L'Administration  Locale,"  pp.  339-52. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE   HUNDRED   YEARS   WAR 

In  the  present  chapter  we  continue  to  follow  the  history  of 
France  and  England,  considering  them  together  in  connec- 
tion with  the  so-called  "Hundred  Years  War"  The  period 
between  them,  and  comparing  the  development  Hundred 
of  the  royal  power  and  national  assemblies  in  the  Y^^"  ^^'^'' 
two  countries.  There  is  also  a  certain  convenient  coinci- 
dence in  the  dates  and  duration  of  reigns  in  the  two  lands 
at  this  time.  During  the  fifty-year  reign  of  Edward  HI  of 
England  there  were  three  French  kings,  Philip  VI,  John  II, 
and  Charles  V.  Then  the  situation  was  reverse(^  and  during 
the  long  reign  of  Charles  VI  in  France  there  were  three 
English  monarchs,  Richard  II,  Henry  IV,  and  Henry  V. 
Finally,  the  reigns  of  Charles  VII  of  France  and  Henry  VI 
of  England,  which  close  the  Hundred  Years  War,  covered 
exactly  the  same  years,  1422  to  1461.^  In  considering  the 
time  of  the  Hundred  Years  War,  we  pass  beyond  the  prime 
of  medieval  civilization  and  enter  the  later  Middle  Ages. 
"We  pass,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  light  and  truth  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  that  wonderful,  if  troublous,  seedtime  of 
principles  and  realities,  into  the  gorgeous,  chivalrous,  un- 
real, selfish,  oppressive,  and  unprincipled  fourteenth." 

The  Hundred  Years  War  itself,  however,  is  a  rather  mis- 
leading phrase.  War  between  the  kings  of  France  and 
England  had  been  chronic  since  the  Norman  conquest,  and 
this  so-called  Hundred  Years  War  made  no  important 
change  in  the  relations  between  the  two  lands  until  its  close, 
when  England  lost  its  possessions  on  the  Continent  and 
turned  subsequently  to  the  upbuilding  of  a  sea  power.  We 
might,  therefore,  better  speak  of  a  four  hundred  years  war 
from  the  Norman  conquest  to  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

1  The  reigns  of  the  next  two  kings,  Louis  XI  and  Edward  IV  (1461-1483) 
also  coincide,  but  do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  present  chapter. 


512        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Moreover,  this  so-called  "  Hundred  Years  War"  was  not 
exactly  a  century  in  duration,  but  covered  the  period  from 
1337  to  1453.  On  the  other  hand,  the  number  of  years  of 
actual  warfare  were  much  less  than  a  hundred,  since  in  the 
course  of  this  period  there  were  numerous  long  truces  and 
two  treaties  of  peace  intended  to  put  a  stop  to  hostilities 
entirely.  But  at  the  time  usually  accepted  as  the  end  of  the 
war  there  was  no  treaty.  Finally,  the  causes  of  the  reopen- 
ing of  hostilities  in  1337  between  Edward  III  and  Philip  VI 
were  not  new,  but  the  old  problems  of  Guienne,  Flanders, 
and  Scotland  over  which  Edward  I  and  Philip  IV  had 
fought  already. 

In  1328  the  direct  male  line  of  the  Capetians  expired  and 
the  French  had  to  determine  to  whom  of  the  royal  family 
Th  Fr  n  h  ^^^  crown  should  go.  Already  in  131 6,  upon  the 
succession  ^eath  of  the  oldest  son  of  Philip  the  Fair,  it 
'"  ^'^^  had  been  decided  that  his  brother  rather  than  his 

daughter  should  succeed  him  and  that  a  woman  should  not 
hold  the  throne  in  France.  Hence  it  was  now  logical  to  de- 
cide that  Philip  of  Valois,  a  son  of  Philip  the  Fair's  brother, 
should  become  king  rather  than  Edward  III  of  England, 
whose  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Philip  the  Fair.  Not  only 
should  women  not  succeed  to  the  throne,  but  also  the  male 
descendants  of  a  female  line  were  excluded.  Edward's 
mother  accepted  this  decision,  and  the  young  King  of  Eng- 
land, who  was  not  yet  of  age,  did  homage  to  the  new  French 
monarch  for  his  fiefs  on  the  Continent.  But  a  few  years 
later  the  inevitable  quarrel  with  France  over  Guienne,  and 
the  Scottish  and  Flemish  questions,  led  Edward  III  in  1337 
to  lay  claim  to  the  French  crown  and  declare  war. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Philip  VI  had  been  to  aid  the 
Count  of  Flanders  and  to  wipe  out  the  disgrace  of  the  de- 
Openine  ^^^^  ^^  Courtrai  by  the  victory  of  Cassel  over  the 
years  of  Flemish  in  1328.    But  now  there  was  a  demo- 

cratic uprising  led  by  Jacob  Artevelde  of  Ghent, 
the  power  of  the  count  was  overthrown,  and  the  Flemish 
towns  made  an  alliance  with  Edward  HI.  The  English  king 
was  also  joined  by  many  lords  of  the  Netherlands  and 


THE   HUNDRED   YEARS  WAR  513 

northwestern  Germany  who  felt  their  independence  men- 
aced by  the  growing  power  of  France.  These  last  allies, 
however,  proved  of  little  assistance.  The  first  important 
battle  of  the  war  was  a  naval  one  at  Sluys  off  the  Flemish 
coast,  where  the  English  fleet,  aided  at  the  last  moment  by 
the  Flemish,  decisively  defeated  the  French  and  gained 
control  of  the  sea  for  the  next  thirty  years.  Papal  legates 
now  arranged  a  truce  which  lasted  until  1345.  Meanwhile, 
however,  both  French  and  English  were  fighting  on  opposite 
sides  in  Brittany  over  a  disputed  succession  to  that  duchy. 
In  1345  the  Flemish  became  dissatisfied  with  their  leader 
Artevelde,  who  had  proposed  to  make  the  son  of  Edward  III 
Count  of  Flanders,  and  murdered  him,  but  they  continued 
for  a  while  longer  to  be  allies  of  England. 

In  1346  direct  war  between  the  Kings  of  England  and 
France  was  renewed  in  the  famous  campaign  of  Crecy,  fa- 
miliar, like  so  many  other  incidents  of  the  war,  ^^^  ^^^_ 
from  the  chivalric  pen  of  the  fourteenth-century  paign  of 
historian,  Froissart.  Edward  III  landed  with  a  ^^^^ 
small  but  well-trained  army  on  the  coast  of  Normandy  at 
La  Hogue,  and  marched  through  that  province  plundering. 
In  particular  he  took  and  sacked  the  rich  city  of  Caen. 
When  Philip  VI  set  out  to  catch  him  and  asked  him  to  name 
a  place  of  battle,  Edward  suggested  a  point  south  of  Paris. 
Instead,  however,  of  continuing  his  march  along  the  south- 
ern bank  of  the  Seine,  he  repaired  a  broken  bridge,  despite 
the  French  troops  guarding  it,  and  forced  a  crossing*  not 
far  from  Paris.  He  then  scurried  north  toward  Flanders  as 
fast  as  he  could  go.  The  river  Somme  was  also  guarded,  and 
only  by  crossing  an  estuary  at  low  tide  did  Edward  escape 
being  caught  in  an  unfavorable  position  by  Philip  who  was 
close  on  his  heels  with  a  much  larger  army. 

When  the  French  overtook  the  English  army  three  days 
later,  it  was  drawn  up  in  a  favorable  position  on  rising 
ground  at  Crecy  waiting  for  them.  The  French  were  hot, 
hungry,  and  thirsty,  but  so  eager  for  battle  that  those  be- 
hind kept  pressing  on  instead  of  obeying  the  royal  command 
to  halt.   Presently  Philip's  fighting  blood  was  aroused,  too, 


514        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  he  ordered  his  Genoese  crossbowmen  to  open  the  battle, 
just  as  a  modern  general  begins  with  a  heavy  artillery  fire. 
These  mercenaries  were  not  so  eager  to  advance  as  were 
the  French  knights,  however,  especially  since  a  recent 
shower  had  affected  their  bows.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
English  archers  had  kept  their  long  bows  dry,  and  the  de- 
structive volleys  of  shafts  which  they  poured  in  throughout 
the  battle  were  probably  the  decisive  factor.  When  the 
Genoese  made  no  headway,  the  French  king  lost  his  temper 
and  ordered  the  knights  to  ride  them  down,  thus  throwing 
his  entire  front  into  confusion.  The  knights  made  many 
successive  attacks  upon  the  English  position,  but  to  no  avail, 
and  they  were  slaughtered  in  great  numbers. 

Edward  did  not  follow  up  his  victory  by  invading  France 
again,  but  continued  his  march  northward,  and,  after  a  long 
Capture  of  siege,  took  the  important  port  of  Calais,  just 
Calais  across  the  Channel  from  Dover.   England  would 

henceforth  have  a  Continental  port  handy  for  landing 
armies  to  invade  France  and  for  its  wool  and  import  trade 
with  Flanders.  Meanwhile  the  Scots  had  been  defeated  at 
Neville's  Cross  and  their  king  captured,  and  a  like  fate  be- 
fell the  French  candidate  in  Brittany.  Another  truce  was 
arranged  by  papal  intervention,  which  lasted  from  1347  to 
1355.  Meantime  the  count  recovered  his  power  in  Flanders, 
but  Edward  III  did  not  attempt  to  save  the  Flemish  towns 
either  on  this  occasion  or  later  in  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny. 
In  Calais  he  now  had  a  port  of  his  own  for  the  Continental 
wool  trade,  and  many  Flemish  weavers  were  emigrating  to 
England  and  manufacturing  their  cloth  there. 

In  1348  not  only  both  France  and  England,  but  the 
countries  of  Europe  generally  were  visited  by  a  plague  com- 
The  Black  pared  to  which  the  most  destructive  wars  of  that 
Death  time  seemed  but  slight  disasters.  This  pestilence 

was  known  as  the  "Black  Death,"  from  the  dark  blotches 
which  appeared  upon  the  body.  It  also  was  marked  by 
swellings  of  the  glands  in  the  groin,  arm-pits,  and  neck, 
where  hard  lumps  would  suddenly  appear  as  large  as  hen's 
eggs,  and  by  many  smaller  boils  and  carbuncles.    Some- 


THE  HUNDRED   YEARS   WAR  515 

times  those  stricken  by  the  plague  vomited  blood  and 
sometimes  they  became  delirious.  The  majority  died  within 
from  one  to  three  days.  This  terrible  plague  probably 
came  from  the  East  by  the  trade  routes  across  Asia  and 
was  spread  over  the  Mediterranean  by  Italian  merchants 
from  a  trading  station  on  the  Black  Sea.  It  was  essentially 
the  same  as  the  bubonic  plague  which  still  exists  in  the 
Orient,  and  in  Europe  it  frequently  cropped  out  again  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  early  modern 
times. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  the  Black  Death  carried  off 
from  one  third  to  one  half  of  the  population.  If  such  esti- 
mates are  anywhere  near  correct,  it  must  have  Estimate  of 
been  an  almost  inestimable  calamity  for  civili-  wrought^ 
zation  and  for  society.  Individuals  would  lose  by  it 
their  relatives  and'friends  and  have  no  one  to  lean  upon  or 
to  help  them  or  to  start  them  in  the  world.  There  would  be 
countless  widows  and  orphans.  Homes  would  be  broken  up 
and  entire  families,  some  of  them  the  noblest  in  the  land, 
would  be  blotted  out.  Agriculture  would  cease  on  the  man- 
ors for  lack  of  tenants  and  laborers  or  for  lack  of  lords  and 
overseers.  In  the  towns  in  many  gilds  there  would  be  no 
master-workmen  left  to  hand  on  the  knowledge  of  their 
crafts  to  apprentices.  Trade  would  diminish  greatly  in 
bulk  and  everything  would  be  upon  a  smaller  scale.  Mon- 
asteries would  have  hardly  enough  monks  left  to  maintain 
them;  schools  would  cease  and  the  Church  and  learning 
suffer.  Many  artists  and  authors  would  have  perished, 
and  with  so  greatly  reduced  a  population  there  would  be 
little  demand  for  new  ecclesiastical  and  municipal  edifices. 
The  difficulty  would  be  to  keep  in  repair  those  which  al- 
ready existed.  And  society  would  be  too  busy  in  readjusting 
itself  to  the  changed  conditions  to  spare  much  time  for 
works  of  art  or  of  literature.  There  is  a  temptation  to  con- 
nect with  this  destructive  pestilence  the  close  of  the  great 
creative  period  of  Gothic  architecture,  the  decline  of  the 
romance  and  fabliau  and  other  types  of  medieval  literature, 
the  stagnation  of  scholasticism  and  theology  in  the  later 


5i6        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Middle  Ages.  Other  explanations,  however,  can  be  given, 
and  these  things  seem  to  have  begun  to  decline  a  little  before 
1348.  Possibly  the  great  mortality  in  the  plague  was,  like 
the  other  things,  due  to  a  dying-out  of  medieval  vitality  and 
power. 

As  yet  the  Black  Death  has  been  little  studied  except  in 
connection  with  English  history.  There  we  know  that  it 
Its  effects  seriously  crippled  the  Church  and  lowered  the 
in  England  quality  of  the  clergy ;  that  it  broke  up  manors 
and  left  crops  to  rot  and  cattle  to  starve  and  the  surviving 
serfs  to  wander  off  looking  for  work  as  free  men.  For  the 
great  mortality  made  labor,  especially  agricultural  labor, 
very  scarce  and  wages  very  high.  Prices  also  went  up.  In 
many  manors  and  towns  the  court  rolls  and  other  records 
are  very  scanty  or  cease  altogether  for  many  years  after  the 
pestilence.  In  some  places  all  local  government  may  have 
come  to  a  standstill;  in  others  there  was  no  one  left  who 
could  write.  Yet  medieval  English  literature  reached  its 
height  after  the  plague  in  the  writings  of  William  Langland 
and  Geoffrey  Chaucer  in  the  second  half  of  the  century. 

It  was  perhaps,  however,  in  the  Black  Death  that  Lang- 
land  lost  the  father  and  friends  who  had  paid  for  his  educa- 
rrj    T7-  •         tion,  but  whose  deaths  left  him  unprovided  with 

1  he  Vision  ... 

of  Piers  the  a  regular  living  in  the  Church  and  compelled  him, 
ougiman  though  he  was  "poor  gentle  blood,"  to  "dwell 
on  Cornhill,  Kit  and  I  in  a  cot,  clothed  as  a  loller,"  and  to 
"beg  without  other  bag  or  bottle  than  my  belly,"  or  "in  the 
habit  of  a  hermit  unholy  of  works  to  wander  wide  in  this 
w^orld  wonders  to  hear.  "  It  was  thus  that  he  gained  that  in- 
timate knowledge  of  the  low  life  of  his  time :  the  vagabonds ; 
the  beggars;  the  poor,  uncared-for  lunatics,  "more  or  less 
mad  according  as  the  moon  sits,"  and  who  walk  "witless 
but  with  a  good  will  in  many  wide  countries";  the  false 
clergy  and  pretended  hermits  and  pilgrims;  the  deserving 
poor,  "prisoners  in  pits  and  poor  folk  in  cottages,"  who  "go 
hungry  and  thirsty"  in  order  to  dress  respectably  and  "are 
ashamed  to  beg" ;  the  tavern-keepers  and  their  customers  — 
Sis  the  shoemaker,  Wat  the  game-warden,  Tomkyn  the 


THE  HUNDRED   YEARS   WAR  517 

tinker,  "Rickey  the  horse-dealer  and  Hogg  the  needle- 
seller,"  "a  fiddler,  a  rat-catcher,  a  Cheapside  scavenger"  — 
all  these  and  many  more  live  for  us  in  his  pages.  If  Will,  as 
the  poet  calls  himself,  depicts  low  life  for  us  and  also  satirizes 
iniquity  in  high  places,  he  none  the  less  cherishes  high  ideals 
both  in  politics  and  religion,  and  also  portrays  ideal  charac- 
ters such  as  Piers  the  ploughman,  the  thrifty  and  industrious 
peasant.  As  for  Will  himself,  after  a  long  search  for  Saint 
Truth  and  for  Do  Well,  Do  Better,  and  Do  Best,  in  which  he 
was  occasionally  cheered  by  the  song  of  wayside  birds  and  of 
sweet  brooks  and  by  many  a  marvelous  dream,  Hunger  and 
Fever  met  him  and  proved  too  much  for  him.  Finally,  we 
are  told,  — 

"  Death  dealt  him  a  dent  and  drove  him  to  earth. 
He  's  now  covered  with  clay.    May  Christ  have  his  soul!  " 

When  the  war  began  again,  John  the  Good,  so-called  be- 
cause he  was  "a  good  fellow,"  not  a  good  general  or  king, 
was  on  the  throne  of  France  and  Charles  the  Bad  Poitiers  and 
of  Navarre,  whose  sobriquet  we  do  not  need  to  Bretigny 
qualify,  was  making  him  trouble.  This  Charles,  born  in 
1332,  was  son  of  that  daughter  of  Louis  X  who  had  been  ex- 
cluded from  the  succession  and  so  Charles  had  the  same  sort 
of  claim  to  the  throne  as  had  Edward  HI.  Edward's  eldest 
son,  the  Black  Prince,  so  named  because  of  the  black  armor 
which  he  wore  to  set  off  his  fair  complexion,  had  won  his 
spurs  at  Crecy  and  now  became  the  English  commander  in 
Gascony.  From  there  he  made  a  plundering  raid  into  Tou- 
louse as  far  as  the  Mediterranean,  and  then,  after  marching 
north  and  finding  that  he  could  not  cross  the  Loire,  retreated 
to  Poitiers.  There  he  defeated  and  captured  King  John, 
who  spent  the  remainder  of  his  reign  in  honorable  captivity 
in  London,  voluntarily  returning  thither  when  his  son,  who 
had  taken  his  place  as  a  hostage  while  he  returned  to  France 
to  try  to  collect  the  remainder  of  his  enormous  ransom,  broke 
his  parole.  Meantime,  in  1360  peace  had  been  concluded  in 
the  Treaty  of  Bretigny,  for  although  the  French  govern- 
ment had  neither  army  nor  money  left,  the  English  could  not 


5i8        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

capture  the  walled  towns,  and  even  the  peasantry  offered  a 
local  resistance.  The  treaty  gave  Edward  Ilia  little  terri- 
tory near  Calais  and  greatly  enlarged  his  borders  in  south- 
western France,  where  he  received  all  Gascony,  Guienne, 
and  Poitou  free  from  any  feudal  bond  to  the  French  king. 
In  return  he  renounced  his  claim  to  the  French  throne. 
The  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny  are  of  slight  impor- 
tance, however,  since  it  was  soon  broken  and  went  by  the 
board. 

The  French  had  suffered  and  were  yet  to  suffer  far  more 
injury  from  the  war  than  the  English,  not  so  much  because 
rru  they  had  been  beaten  as  because  the  war  was 

1  he  com-  ■' 

panics  of        fought  on  French  soil.    Both  sides  soon  came  to 

mercenaries  i  •    ,  i  •      j   -  j 

rely  mamly  upon  hired  troops  under  mercenary 
leaders,  and  these  companies,  as  they  were  called,  lived  on 
the  country,  and,  if  they  did  not  receive  their  pay  promptly, 
made  it  up  by  plundering.  Even  after  peace  had  been  de- 
clared, it  was  almost  impossible  to  get  rid  of  them  in  France. 
They  defeated  the  royal  troops  in  1362  and  lasted  into  the 
next  reign. 

In  order  to  secure  generous  grants  for  the  prosecution  of 
the  war  abroad,  Edward  III  had  rather  allowed  the  Parlia- 
Edward  III  "^^^^  ^o  havc  its  Way  in  the  conduct  of  internal 
and  Parlia-  affairs.  Once  he  annulled  some  laws  to  which  he 
had  agreed  the  previous  year,  but  Parliament 
secured  a  promise  that  he  would  not  so  offend  again.  Some- 
times he  took  taxes  before  asking  their  consent,  but  either 
obtained  it  later  or  promised  not  to  levy  such  a  tax  again. 
Thus,  the  principle  was  repeatedly  stated  and  upheld  that 
legislation  and  taxation  must  be  through  Parliament.  Im- 
portant legislation  of  the  middle  of  his  reign  included  the 
Statute  of  Treason  which  further  safeguarded  the  crown, 
the  Statute  of  the  Staple  regulating  trade,  the  Statute  of 
Laborers,  —  an  attempt  to  keep  down  the  wages  of  agri- 
cultural laborers  after  the  great  pestilence,  —  and  the 
Statutes  of  Provisors  and  Prcemunire  directed  against  papal 
appointments  of  foreigners  to  positions  in  the  English 
Church  and  appeals  of  cases  from  English  courts  to  Rome. 


THE   HUNDRED   YEARS  WAR  519 

The  Parliament  also  repudiated  the  annual  tribute  which 
King  John  had  agreed  to  pay  to  the  pope. 

In  France  under  Philip  VI  the  royal  power  continued  to 
develop.  Philip  gave  away  a  good  deal  of  territory  in  appan- 
ages, it  is  true,  but  added  to  his  dominions  by  Royal  power 
purchase  the  city  of  Montpellier  on  the  Mediter-  °f  ^^'^'P  ^^ 
ranean  coast  and  the  province  of  Dauphine  east  of  the 
Rhone.  As  the  oldest  son  of  the  King  of  England  is  called 
Prince  of  Wales,  so  from  this  time  in  France  the  crown 
prince  was  known  as  the  "dauphin."  During  Philip's  reign 
the  central  administration  and  machinery  of  monarchy  were 
further  elaborated  by  a  series  of  royal  ordinances.  Royal 
taxation  also  continued  to  increase.  Toward  the  close  of  this 
reign,  however,  and  during  the  disastrous  reign  of  John 
which  followed,  it  looked  for  a  time  as  if  the  Estates  General 
might  acquire  the  same  control  over  taxation  as  had  the 
English  Parliament. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Estates  General  in  the  reign  of 
Philip  VI,  concerning  which  we  have  detailed  information, 
was  in  1346.  It  ventilated  various  grievances,  The  Estates 
but  made  no  grants  of  money.  In  the  next  year,  crlJfy^to^'^""^ 
after  the  defeat  at  Crecy,  the  Estates  read  the  Poitiers 
king  quite  a  lecture,  and  during  the  remainder  of  the  reign 
became  increasingly  niggardly  and  exacting  toward  the 
Crown.  The  provincial  estates  were  equally  difficult  to  deal 
with.  Under  John,  who  was  extravagant  and  had  bad 
advisers  and  favorites,  the  general  dissatisfaction  with  the 
misconduct  of  the  war  and  the  sad  state  of  the  country  in- 
creased until  it  resulted  in  a  revolutionary  movement.  In 
December,  1355,  just  before  Poitiers,  the  Estates  General 
granted  supplies  for  the  war,  only  on  condition  that  they 
have  complete  charge  of  collecting  the  taxes,  organizing  the 
army,  and  auditing  the  accounts.  For  these  purposes  they 
appointed  committees  and  stipulated  that  they  should  meet 
again  after  three  months  to  see  that  their  wishes  had  been 
carried  out.  In  these  measures  the  lead  was  taken  by  the 
representatives  of  the  towns  under  the  leadership  of  Etienne 
Marcel,  provost  of  the  merchants  of  Paris.    The  Estates, 


520        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

however,  had  not  shown  much  wisdom  in  the  type  of  taxes 
which  they  levied,  and  they  had  to  alter  them  twice  in  the 
course  of  the  next  six  months.  Meanwhile,  the  king  sus- 
pected Charles  the  Bad  of  Navarre  of  fomenting  the  opposi- 
tion and  of  having  designs  upon  the  throne,  and  in  April, 
1356,  suddenly  arrested  him  and  beheaded  his  councilors. 
This  act  caused  many  of  Charles's  followers  to  go  over  to 
the  English  side. 

The  defeat  of  Poitiers  and  the  capture  of  the  king  by  the 
English  occurred  in  September.  This  absence  of  the  king 
Revolution-  lessened  the  authority  of  the  central  government 
rnenrhi^^  and  emboldened  the  opposition.  One  could  say 
Paris  things  to  ministers  or  a  regent  which  one  would 

hardly  utter  to  the  king's  face,  and  one  felt  less  scruples 
about  disobeying  them  than  resisting  a  command  made 
by  the  king  in  person.  When  the  dauphin  summoned  the 
Estates  General  in  October,  they  would  do  nothing  for  him 
unless  he  released  the  King  of  Navarre,  reformed  govern- 
mental abuses  such  as  the  debased  currency,  and  replaced 
his  advisers  by  men  chosen  by  the  three  Estates.  He  there- 
upon prorogued  them  and  tried  in  vain  to  secure  taxes 
through  the  provincial  estates.  Meanwhile  Marcel  had 
armed  the  burghers  of  Paris.  By  February,  1357,  the 
dauphin  was  forced  to  resort  to  the  Estates  General  again. 
They  released  Charles  of  Navarre,  appointed  a  committee 
composed  of  twelve  representatives  from  each  of  the  three 
Estates  to  direct  the  government,  and  issued  a  long  program 
of  reform,  demanding,  among  other  things,  that  henceforth 
the  Estates  General  should  meet  every  three  years  whether 
summoned  by  the  king  or  not,  that  the  administration  of 
justice  should  be  reformed,  and  that  private  war  among  the 
nobility  should  cease.  When  the  dauphin  showed  himself 
unwilling  to  submit  to  these  conditions  and  began  to  recall 
his  former  advisers,  the  Parisian  mob  killed  some  of  his 
ministers,  while  others  fled,  and  forced  upon  his  head  a  cap 
with  the  red  and  blue  colors  of  the  popular  party.  But  the 
other  towns  of  France  were  not  ready  to  go  so  far  as  this, 
and  when  the  dauphin  escaped  from  Paris  he  received  sup- 


THE   HUNDRED   YEARS   WAR  521 

port  from  provincial  estates  and  from  a  meeting  of  the 
Estates  General  summoned  at  Compiegne  away  from  the 
influence  of  Marcel  and  the  mob  of  Paris. 

But  now  a  new  uprising  broke  out  among  the  peasantry 
of  northern  and  northeastern  France,  called  the  "Jacquerie" 
from  Jacqties,  or  Jack,  the  common  name  for  The 
a  peasant.  This  uprising  was  directed,  not  so  J^cquene 
much  against  the  royal  government  as  against  the  local 
lords  who  had  failed  so  completely  to  protect  their  ten- 
ants from  the  ravages  of  the  English  and  of  the  compan- 
ies of  mercenaries  and  yet  were  insisting  upon  their  rents 
and  services  as  oppressively  as  ever.  The  peasants  were 
numerous,  but  poorly  armed  and  organized,  and  were  soon 
crushed  by  the  united  action  of  the  feudal  lords.  As  usual 
in  the  repression  of  such  revolts,  the  nobles  took  a  terrible 
vengeance  for  the  acts  of  violence  which  the  peasantry 
had  committed.  The  Jacquerie  had  the  effect  of  bringing 
all  the  feudal  lords  over  to  the  dauphin's  side,  while  the 
townsmen  lost  support  in  public  opinion  because  they  were 
suspected  of  having  encouraged  the  peasants'  revolt.  More- 
over, Charles  the  Bad  proved  treacherous  to  his  Parisian 
supporters  and  negotiated  with  the  dauphin.  Finally  Mar- 
cel was  assassinated,  as  Artevelde  had  been  in  Flanders, 
and  the  dauphin  recovered  Paris. 

Thus  the  attempt  to  impose  a  permanent  check  upon  the 
monarchy  through  the  Estates  General,  and  in  particular  to 
give  the  towns  a  greater  share  in  the  central  gov-  r, 

,  °  Royal  power 

ernrhent,  had  failed.   During  the  following  reign  reasserted 
of  Charles  V,  known  as  "the  Wise,"  and  famous  byCharlesV 
for  his  library  and  patronage  of  art  and  literature,   the 
Estates  met  but  once.    As  dauphin  he  had  had  his  fill  of 
them.    He  introduced  two  important  customs  which    re- 
mained characteristic  of  the  French  government  until  the 
French  Revolution  of  1789;  namely,  the  custom  of  having  \ 
royal  legislation  registered  by  the  Parlement  or  chief  court 
of  justice  instead  of  bringing  it  before  the  Estates,  and  the  . 
vicious  practice  of  customs  duties  on  trade  between  the 
different  provinces  of  France.  Charles  taxed  heavily,  but  he 


522        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

was  economical  and  intelligent,  employed  able  officials,  cor- 
rected abuses  in  the  government,  and  maintained  law  and 
order  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  He  also  was  more  successful 
against  England  than  his  two  predecessors  and  did  not  have 
to  shoulder  the  blame  for  any  such  defeats  as  those  of 
Crecy  and  Poitiers. 

Philip  VI  and  John  II  had  led  their  armies  in  person  and 
had  displayed  inferior  generalship.  Charles  V  was  himself 
Recover  sickly  and  no  warrior,  but  found  in  the  Breton, 
of  French  Du  Guesclin,  an  able  military  leader.  After  some 
ern  ory  preliminary  fighting  against  Charles  of  Navarre, 
and  in  Brittany  where  the  succession  was  still  disputed,  and 
in  Spain  where  Du  Guesclin  and  the  Black  Prince  fought  on 
opposite  sides  in  another  disputed  succession  to  the  throne 
of  Castile,  direct  hostilities  between  France  and  England 
broke  out  again.  In  1369  an  appeal  from  the  inhabitants  of 
southwestern  France  against  the  harsh  rule  of  the  Black 
Prince  led  Charles  V  to  renew  the  war,  which  this  time 
turned  in  favor  of  France.  The  Black  Prince  soon  became 
broken  in  health  and  returned  to  England,  where  his  father 
was  still  king,  but  now  in  his  dotage.  In  1372  the  Castilian 
fleet  in  alliance  with  France  defeated  the  English  at  La 
Rochelle,  and  by  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Charles  V,  the 
English  had  little  left  on  the  Continent  except  such  seaports 
as  Calais,  Bordeaux,  and  Bayonne.  During  the  remainder 
of  the  century  there  was  no  fighting  of  importance. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  English  people  to  express  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  conduct  of  the  war  and  with  their  royal 
The  "Good  government.  In  the  "Good  Parliament"  of  1376 
Parhament"  ^^^  leading  part  was  taken  by  the  House  of 
Commons  and  its  Speaker,^  who  is  to-day  purely  a  presiding 
officer,  but  then  was  the  spokesman  who  presented  their 
petitions  to  the  king.  The  corrupt  favorites  and  ministers  of 
the  aged  king  were  banished  or  were  impeached  by  the  Com- 
mons before  the  House  of  Lords,  the  first  instance  of  the 

^  Peter  de  la  Mare,  whom  the  Commons  chose  as  their  leader  on  this  oc- 
casion does  not  seem  to  have  had  the  title  of  Speaker,  but  it  was  introduced 
the  very  next  year. 


THE   HUNDRED   YEARS  WAR  523 

exercise  of  this  constitutional  power.  Many  reforms  were 
planned  in  the  government,  and  the  succession  to  the 
throne  was  secured  to  Richard,  the  young  son  of  the  Black 
Prince,  as  against  his  ambitious  and  unpopular  uncle,  John 
of  Gaunt.  After  this  Parliament  was  over,  the  corrupt  court 
party  recovered  to  some  extent  its  former  position  and  the 
program  of  reform  was  not  carried  out.  But  then  vvithin  a 
year  came  the  death  of  Edward  III,  the  flight  of  his  greedy 
favorites,  the  withdrawal  of  John  of  Gaunt  from  domestic 
politics,  and  the  accession  of  the  ten-year-old  Richard  II 
with  a  council  of  twelve  selected  both  from  the  court  and 
the  parliamentary  parties. 

The  English  Parliament,  however,  and  even  the  House  of 
Commons,  made  up  as  it  was  of  representatives  of  the  land- 
owning class  and  of  the  more  prosperous  towns-  ^j^^  p^^^_ 
men,  had  little  sympathy  with  the  lower  classes  ants'  Revolt 
of  workingmen  who  had  but  recently  come  up  °  ^"^  ^ 
from  serfdom  or  villeinage,  as  it  had  already  shown  in  its 
Statute  of  Laborers.  This  attempt  to  force  men  to  work  for 
the  same  wages  as  before  the  Black  Death  had  caused  great 
discontent  among  the  laboring  classes  and  was  almost  im- 
possible to  enforce,  but  the  government  had  kept  trying  to 
enforce  it,  and  had  enacted  a  series  of  similar  laws  in  the 
years  from  1 351  to  138 1.  Now,  in  order  to  meet  the  expense 
of  the  unsuccessful  French  war,  Parliament  agreed  to  a  new 
form  of  taxation ;  namely,  poll  taxes  which  every  one  except  7 
absolute  paupers  had  to  pay,  instead  of  the  usual  taxes 
levied  upon  land,  merchandise,  and  other  forms  of  property. 
When  in  addition  these  poll  taxes  were  unjustly  and  un- 
systematically  collected,  the  peasants,  especially  in  south- 
eastern England,  rose  in  revolt.  They  also  had  other  griev- 
ances against  both  their  feudal  lords  and  the  clergy.  They 
succeeded  in  entering  London,  where  the  humbler  artisans 
sympathized  with  them;  they  killed  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  and  some  other  high  officials  and  did  some 
plundering;  but  then  most  of  them  dispersed  to  their  homes 
when  the  boy  king  promised  to  abolish  serfdom  and  to  re- 
dress their  other  grievances.  These  promises  were  not  kept ; 


524        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

even  had  the  king  been  sincere,  the  nobility  and  Parliament 
would  not  have  allowed  it.  The  revolt  was  suppressed  in 
the  same  cruel  way  that  the  Jacquerie  had  been  put  down 
in  France.  However,  it  was  as  impossible  to  enforce  the 
Statute  of  Laborers  after  the  Peasants'  Revolt  as  it  had 
been  before,  and  it  is  also  noteworthy  that  poll  taxes  were 
not  levied  again  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  peasants  also 
continued  gradually  to  escape  from  villeinage,  just  as  they 
had  been  doing  before  the  revolt. 

Contemporary  with  the  Peasants'  Revolt  in  England 
occurred  popular  risings  in  other  countries.  The  heavy  taxa- 
T^  ,.      tion  of  Charles  V  finally  resulted  in   popular 

Uemocratic  ,  .  . 

movements  resistance  at  the  very  close  of  his  reign  and  dur- 
e  sew  ere  j^^  ^^^  minority  of  his  son.  Revolts  occurred  in 
Amiens,  Laon,  Rouen,  Rheims,  and  other  towns  of  northern 
France,  and  in  1382  reached  Paris.  In  Languedoc  bands  of 
peasants  and  artisans  became  brigands  in  order  to  procure 
food  and  to  escape  taxation.  In  1379  the  Flemish  towns  re- 
volted once  more  against  their  count.  When  the  rich  towns- 
men in  Bruges  recalled  him,  the  people  of  Ghent  made  the 
son  of  Artevelde  their  leader,  conquered  Bruges,  massacred 
the  foes  of  democracy  there,  and  spread  the  movement,  not 
only  throughout  Flanders,  but  into  Brabant  and  the  Bishop- 
ric of  Liege.  But  the  French  led  an  army  against  them  and 
they  were  defeated,  and  the  younger  Artevelde  was  slain  in 
the  battle  of  Roosebek  in  1382.  It  was  at  this  same  time 
that  the  city  leagues  of  southern  Germany  reached  their 
height,  and  that  the  Ciompi,  or  lowest  class  in  Florence, 
gained  for  four  brief  years  the  suffrage.  All  these  movements 
failed  and  the  lower  classes  nowhere  secured  equal  political 
rights,  largely,  it  would  seem,  because  the  well-to-do  middle 
class  preferred  to  maintain  the  established  government. 

The  reigns  of  Richard  II  of  England  and  Charles  VI  of 
France  were  somewhat  alike.  Both  opened  with  minorities 
Richard  II  during  which  the  kings  were  in  tutelage  and 
and'charles  ^^^irs  Came  largely  into  the  hands  of  their  uncles, 
VI  of  France  whosc  rule  in  both  cases  was  bad.  The  first  few 
years  of  both  reigns  were  also  marked  by  popular  revolts,  as 


THE   HUNDRED   YEARS  WAR  525 

we  have  seen.  Both  kings  then  declared  themselves  of  age 
and  ruled  well  for  a  few  years.  In  1396  Richard  married 
Charles's  daughter  and  peace  prevailed  between  the  two 
realms.  From  1392  Charles  was  insane  most  of  the  time,  and 
some  have  thought  that  Richard's  reason  became  affected 
also.  At  any  rate,  after  eight  years  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment he  suddenly  in  1397  began  to  disregard  Parliament 
and  act  as  an  absolute  monarch  and  take  vengeance  on  those 
who  had  opposed  him  during  the  period  of  his  minority. 

Such  conduct  resulted  in  Richard's  deposition  in  1399  and 
in  the  throne  being  offered  by  Parliament  to  the  son  of  John 
of  Gaunt,  who  as  Henry  IV  was  the  first  king  of  The  Lan- 
the  House  of  Lancaster.  Richard  II  had  left  no  SYiament"'^ 
children,  but  even  after  he  had  died  or  had  been  in  England 
murdered  in  prison,  there  were  alive  other  descendants  of 
Edward  III  who  had  a  better  hereditary  claim  to  the  throne 
than  the  Lancastrians,  for  John  of  Gaunt  was  not  the  next 
oldest  son  after  the  Black  Prince.  The  reign  of  Henry  IV 
was  filled  with  uprisings  against  the  new  king,  whom  many 
regarded  as  a  usurper.  Therefore  Henry  IV  and  his  two 
successors  Henries  V  and  VI,  were  careful  not  to  offend 
Parliament,  which  enlarged  its  powers  during  their  reigns. 
They  also  favored  the  Church  in  order  to  secure  its  support. 
There  had  been  considerable  opposition  to  the  clergy,  as 
well  as  to  the  Papacy  in  England  in  the  second  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  as  we  shall  see  more  fully  in  a  later 
chapter. 

When  Charles  VI  became  insane,  there  ensued  a  struggle 
for  the  control  of  the  central  government  between  two 
parties,  one  led  by  his  brother,  Louis  of  Orleans,   Burgundi- 
the  other  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  In  the  reign  orLanists 
of  John  II  the  old  feudal  dynasty  in  that  duchy  in  France 
had  died  out  and  the  fief  had  escheated  to  the  French  Crown. 
But  John  had  promptly  granted  it  again  to  his  younger 
son,  Philip.   This  Philip  presently  married  the  daughter  of 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  and  when  her  father  died  in  1384  they 
inherited  not  only  Flanders,  but  also  the  counties  of  Bur- 
gundy, Nevers,  Rethel,  and  Artois.    Philip  had  had  less 


526        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

difficulty  with  the  towns  of  Flanders  than  his  father-in-law 
had  experienced,  and  now  Paris  and  the  other  French  towns 
joined  the  Burgundian  party  while  the  feudal  nobles  were 
generally  Orleanists.  In  1404  John  the  Fearless  became 
Duke  of  Burgundy  and  three  years  later  murdered  Louis  of 
Orleans.  This  for  the  moment  left  the  Orleanists  without  a 
head,  but  in  1410  various  nobles  formed  a  league  against 
Burgundy  in  which  the  leading  spirit  was  the  Count  of  Ar- 
magnac.  Henceforth,  therefore,  the  civil  strife  is  spoken  of 
as  between  the  Burgundians  and  Armagnacs.  The  dauphin 
sided  first  with  one  party  and  then  with  the  other. 

This  divided  state  of  France  gave  the  brilliant  and  am- 
bitious King  of  England,  Henry  V,  an  opportunity  to  carry 
.  .        ^       the  war  once  more  into  French  territory.   He 

Agincourt  ...  . 

opened  negotiations  with  the  Burgundian  party 
and  in  14 15  conducted  a  campaign  similar  to  that  which  had 
led  to  the  battle  of  Crecy  in  1346.  Like  Edward  III,  he 
landed  on  the  coast  of  Normandy,  but  north  of  the  Seine, 
where  he  besieged  and  took  Harfleur.  He  then  marched 
north  and  had  difficulty  in  crossing  the  Somme,  just  as  had 
Edward  III,  and  finally  won,  over  a  much  larger  French 
army,  a  victory  at  Agincourt,  nor  far  from  Crecy,  and  by 
similar  tactics  to  those  employed  at  that  battle.  He  also 
resembled  Edward  III  in  not  following  up  his  victory,  but 
in  continuing  his  march  north  to  Calais  and  returning  home. 
In  141 7,  however,  he  resumed  his  attempt  to  reduce  the 
towns  of  Normandy  and  gained  a  rapid  series  of  successes, 
and  was  now  actively  aided  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  who 
had  held  aloof  from  both  sides  at  Agincourt.  In  1418  Paris 
opened  its  gates  to  the  Burgundians  and  the  Count  of 
Armagnac  was  murdered.  But  soon  the  English  successes 
and  exorbitant  terms  of  peace  named  by  Henry  V  caused 
Duke  John  of  Burgundy  to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  the 
dauphin.  By  this  time  the  death  of  his  older  brothers  had 
made  dauphin  the  youngest  son  of  the  Insane  king.  As  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  knelt  before  this  sixteen-year-old  prince, 
he  was  attacked  and  slain,  paying  the  penalty  for  his  murder 
of  Orleans  fifteen  years  before. 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR  527 

The  new  Duke  of  Burgundy,  Philip  the  Good,  held  the 
dauphin  responsible  for  his  father's  murder  and  came  over 
wholly  to  the  English  side.  He  agreed  to  the  The  Treaty 
Treaty  of  Troyes  in  1420,  by  which  Henry  V  of  Troyes 
married  the  French  Princess  Catherine  and  was  to  become 
King  of  France  upon  the  death  of  the  insane  Charles  VI. 
An  assembly  of  the  Estates  at  Paris  approved  the  treaty, 
and  Henry  was  making  good  his  claim  by  further  conquests 
at  the  dauphin's  expense,  when  death  overtook  him  in  1422 
at  the  age  of  only  thirty-five.  Charles  VI  died  a  little  later 
in  the  same  year.  Henry  VI,  son  of  Henry  V,  was  not  yet  a 
year  old;  but  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  tried  to  pro- 
cure the  French  throne  for  him  and  continued  the  military 
successes  of  the  English  for  some  years.  He  also  tried  to 
give  Normandy  and  other  French  territory  under  his  rule 
good  government.  But  the  people  were  neither  prosperous 
nor  happy  under  English  rule ;  the  country  was  still  suffering 
from  the  effects  of  the  war;  the  captains  of  Charles  VII,  as 
the  former  dauphin  styled  himself,  kept  making  raids;  and 
local  resistance  to  English  rule  kept  cropping  out. 

The  situation  by  1429  was  as  follows:  Charles  VII,  who 
was  but  nineteen  at  his  father's  death,  whose  face  was  un- 
prepossessing in  appearance,  and  whose  short.  The  siege 
knock-kneed  legs  moved  with  an  undignified  gait,  °^  Orleans 
had  so  far  remained  inactive  south  of  the  Loire.  He  ap- 
peared to  have  no  money  and  to  be  controlled  by  unworthy 
favorites,  and  was  derisively  known  as  "the  King  of 
Bourges,"  from  the  cathedral  town  where  he  most  often  held 
his  court.  The  English  and  Burgundians  held  everything 
north  of  the  Loire  and  some  territory  on  the  southwestern 
coast.  We  have  before  noted  the  strategic  importance  of 
Orleans,  situated  upon  the  northernmost  bend  of  the  Loire, 
as  the  key  to  the  interior  of  France.  It  now  barred  the  way 
of  the  English  south  and  they  were  besieging  it.  Charles, 
located  for  the  present  at  Chinon  rather  than  at  Bourges, 
seemed  unable  to  do  anything  to  relieve  the  beleaguered 
city. 

An  illiterate  peasant  girl  now  turned  the  tide  of  victory 


528        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

in  favor  of  France.  Saintly  voices  and  visions,  Jeanne  d'Arc, 
or  Joan  of  Arc,  believed,  bade  her  leave  her  home  on  the 
Jeanne  border  of  Lorraine  and  go  to  the  help  of  her  king 

^  ^^^  and  her  country.   Her  father  had  little  sympathy 

with  what  he  regarded  as  idle  fancies ;  but  she  persuaded  an 
uncle  to  take  her  to  a  royal  captain  in  the  neighborhood. 
After  this  captain  had  refused  her  once,  she  finally  induced 
him  in  turn  to  supply  her  with  an  escort  so  that  she  might 
ride  through  the  intervening  hostile  territory  to  the  royal 
headquarters  at  Chinon.  Here,  strange  to  say,  she  per- 
suaded Charles  to  give  her  a  few  troops  and  let  her  try  to 
save  Orleans.  But  many  other  soldiers  joined  her  as  she 
marched  through  Blois  toward  Orleans.  She  brought  pro- 
visions into  the  starving  town  by  boats  on  the  river,  and 
then,  by  capturing  one  English  fortification  after  another, 
forced  the  English  within  a  few  days  to  abandon  the  siege. 
Then  she  led  the  army  of  the  dauphin,  as  she  called  him  un- 
til his  formal  coronation,  northeast  in  a  victorious  march 
through  the  enemy's  country  to  Rheims  where  he  could  be 
duly  crowned  king  in  the  great  cathedral. 

Joan's  marvelous  success  was  due  chiefly  to  the  fact  that 
all  the  French  needed  at  this  time  to  defeat  and  drive 
Reasons  ^^^  ^^^  English  was  confidence  and  leadership, 
for  Joan's  She  Supplied  both.  She  believed  firmly  in  her 
"Voices"  and  the  age  was  still  ready  to  accept 
the  miraculous.  Consequently  many  of  her  followers  be- 
lieved her  to  be  a  saint  divinely  inspired,  and  found  in  that 
belief  assurance  of  victory.  Even  the  English  had  to  admit 
that  there  was  something  supernatural  about  her,  but  they 
preferred  to  insist  that  she  was  a  witch  and  an  instrument  of 
the  Devil.  Joan  also  loved  her  country  and  her  king.  She 
wanted  to  relieve  her  suffering  land  and  to  drive  the  English 
home  where  they  belonged.  That  there  were  plenty  of  other 
Frenchmen  who  felt  as  she  did  is  evidenced  by  the  strong 
backing  she  at  once  received  and  by  the  way  she  set  her  sol- 
diers' hearts  on  fire.  The  idea  of  one  France  in  contrast  to 
feudal  states  and  local  interests  had  now  come  into  being, 
and  devotion  to  the  king  was  a  sentiment  that  burned  in 


THE   HUNDRED   YEARS  WAR  529 

many  a  breast  as  well  as  In  the  pure  bosom  of  the  peasant 
maid  of  Domremy.  Joan  had  other  qualities  of  leadership. 
She  was  not  an  ordinary  visionary,  but  natural,  self- 
possessed,  and  apt  at  repartee  despite  her  lack  of  education. 
Her  life  was  pure  and  noble,  she  was  genuinely  religious,  she 
inspired  respect  in  the  rough  soldiers,  and  enforced  strict 
discipline  and  order  throughout  the  camp.  Although  she 
endured  many  hardships  and  wore  armor  like  a  man,  she 
remained  womanly  and  in  battle  carried  a  banner  in  order 
not  to  kill  any  one.  Yet  she  spoke  out  boldly  her  opinion 
in  the  king's  councils  of  war,  and  was  the  most  aggressive 
of  his  commanders.  Where  there  was  the  most  danger, 
there  was  her  banner. 

Charles  VII  was  still  too  sluggish  or  cautious  to  keep  pace 
with  her  impetuosity  for  long.  He  hesitated  about  attacking 
Paris  until  it  was  too  late,  and  then  withdrew  to  Fate  of 
Bourges  again.  Joan  went  off  to  relieve  Com-  J°^" 
piegne  from  the  Burgundians.  She  was  captured  and  tried 
at  Rouen,  the  English  headquarters  in  France,  by  a  large 
ecclesiastical  court  under  English  influence  in  an  effort  to 
prove  her  a  witch  or  at  least  a  heretic.  The  trial  was  unfair 
and  she  was  unfairly  dealt  with  in  prison.  She  was  con- 
demned as  a  heretic  and  burned  at  the  stake  only  two  years 
after  her  relief  of  Orleans.  The  English  had  hoped  to  justify 
themselves  and  to  throw  discredit  upon  her  by  this  course, 
but  the  result  was  just  the  opposite.  Charles  VII  made  no 
move  to  save  her  at  the  time,  but  twenty-four  years  later  the 
pope  ordered  a  retrial  of  her  case  and  her  name  was  cleared 
of  all  suspicion  of  heresy.  In  1909  occurred  her  beatification 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

After  their  execution  of  Joan,  the  English  won  no  more 
victories.  In  1435  the  Duke  of  Bedford  died,  and  thereafter 
there  was  dissension  and  lack  of  capable  military  ^j^^  English 
leadership  among  Henry  VI's  advisers  and  gen-  are  driven 
erals.   In  1435,  too,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  aban-    '^^^ 
doned  the  English  alliance  and  made  the  Treaty  of  Arras 
with  Charles  VII,  from  whom  he  received  territorial  and 
other  concessions.  The  next  year  the  French  king  reentered 


530        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Paris.  There  was  a  truce  from  1444  to  1449,  but  in  1450  the 
English  lost  Normandy  and  in  1453  their  possessions  in 
southern  France.  Calais  alone  was  left  to  them.  No  definite 
treaty  was  signed  relinquishing  their  claims,  but  none  was 
needed ;  they  were  not  to  recover  the  lost  ground.  However, 
it  was  some  time  before  English  monarchs  wholly  gave  up 
the  idea  of  invading  France.  Edward  IV  came  in  1475  with 
the  largest  army  that  England  had  yet  sent  across  the 
Channel,  but  he  went  home  without  having  fought  an  en- 
gagement. Henry  VII  came  again,  but  also  allowed  himself 
to  be  bought  off  with  money.  Henry  VIII  was  possessed  in 
his  youth  with  the  notion  of  winning  glory  in  French  cam- 
paigns, but  was  soon  turned  from  this  policy  by  the  wiser 
head  of  his  minister,  Wolsey. 

The  war  left  France  in  a  sad  state  of  desolation,  depopula- 
tion, and  apparent  ruin,  with  large  areas  thrown  out  of  cul- 
Eff       f         tivation,  with  homes  and  fields  replaced  by  for- 
the  war  on      ests  and   wild   beasts,   with   large   beggar  and 
ranee  criminal  classes  recruited  from  the  impoverished 

peasants  and  disbanded  soldiers.  Crime  had  increased  and 
religion  had  declined.  It  is  true  that  the  recovery  from  all 
this  was  surprisingly  rapid.  But  an  irreparable  hurt  was 
that  for  over  a  century  France,  hitherto  the  leader  in  medi- 
eval culture,  had  been  held  back  from  further  accomplish- 
ment and  development.  Nationality  had  been  attained,  but 
at  a  great  cost. 


THE   HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR  531 


EXERCISES  AND   READINGS 

Chronological  Table. 

List  the  events  narrated  in  the  above  chapter  in  three  parallel  columns. 
Devote  the  middle  column  to  events  in  which  both  France  and  Eng- 
land were  concerned,  one  of  the  side  columns  to  events  in  which  Eng- 
land alone  was  concerned,  and  the  other  side  column  to  French  history. 
Arrange  the  list  of  events  in  each  column  in  chronological  order,  and 
so  that  events  which  occurred  simultaneously  may  be  opposite  one 
another  in  their  respective  columns. 
This  chronological  table  may  be  preserved  and,  as  the  succeeding 
chapters  are  read,  other  columns  may  be  added  to  cover  their  history 
during  the  later  Middle  Ages. 

Edward  III  and  Flanders. 
Warner,  Landmarks  in  English  Industrial  History,  pp.  83-93. 

The  Black  Death. 

Warner,  op.  cit.,  pp.  95-115. 

H.  D.  Traill,  Social  England,  vol.  ll,  pp.  133-36,  in  the  unillustrated  edi- 
tion; pp.  184-88  in  the  illustrated  edition. 
F.  A.  Gasquet,  The  Great  Pestilence  (London,  1893),  any  chapter. 

The  Peasants'  Revolt. 

Traill,  Social  England,  vol.  11,  pp.  97-100  (unillustrated);  pp.  139-43 

(illustrated)  on  the  rise  of  hired  laborers:  pp.  137-46  (unillustrated); 

pp.  189-99  (illustrated)  on  agriculture. 
C.  Oman.,  Political  History  of  England,  ijyy-i4Ss;  pp.  1-25,  on  the 

causes  of  the  revolt. 

The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Ploughman. 

There  is  no  complete  translation  into  modern  English.  A  portion  has 
been  translated  somewhat  too  freely  into  modern  prose  by  Kate 
Warren  (London,  1899).  It  is  not  very  difficult  to  read  the  original 
with  the  aid  of  the  notes  and  glossary  in  Skeats's  scholarly  edition. 

Warfare  of  the  Fourteenth  Century. 

Traill,  Social  England,  vol.  ll,  pp.  172-81  (unillustrated);  pp.  234-48 
(illustrated). 

The  Lancastrian  Kings. 

Cross,  A  History  of  England  and  Greater  Britain,  chap.  XV. 

France  under  the  First  Valois  Kings. 

R.  Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap.  IV. 

Burgundians  and  Armagnacs. 
R.  Lodge,  op.  a7.,-chap.  xv. 

Joan  of  Arc. 

Any  chapter  in  the  Lives  of  Joan  by  F.  C.  Lowell  (Boston,  1896)  and 

Anatole  France  (English  translation  in  two  volumes,  London,   1909). 
For  those  who  read  French,  E.  Lavisse,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  iv,  part  11, 

48-70. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

GERMANY   IN   THE   LATER   MIDDLE   AGES 

German  history  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  lacks  unity  com- 
pared to  that  of  France  or  of  England,  and  is  more  closely 
German  in  connected  with  lands  to  the  east  like  Hungary, 
the  later  Bohemia,  and  Poland,  and  with  the  countries 
^^^  about  the  Baltic  Sea  to  the  north,  than  it  is  with 
the  states  of  western  Europe.  Italy  is  now  seldom  visited  by 
the  Holy  Roman  emperors  and  has  its  own  separate  history. 
Germany  itself  is  nominally  under  the  rule  of  one  emperor, 
but  really  has  become  a  shifting  chaos  of  principalities  and 
powers,  great  and  small.  Various  local  dynasties  rise  and 
fall,  increase  or  diminish  in  territory,  impinge  upon  or  give 
way  to  one  another.  Among  these  some  are  worth  noting 
as  the  later  founders  of  modern  states  or  as  still  reigning 
to-day.  Important  also  are  certain  cooperative  forms  of 
government  which  develop  in  this  period:  the  Hanseatic 
League  of  cities  in  the  north,  the  military  order  of  Teutonic 
Knights  in  the  northeast,  the  Swiss  Confederation  in  the 
southwest.  In  the  later  Middle  Ages  Germans,  although 
divided  politically,  are  still  expanding  territorially.  Teu- 
tonic colonists  throng  into  Bohemia,  Poland,  and  Hungary; 
the  Knights  conquer  and  convert  Poles  and  Letts;  the 
Hanse  towns  acquire  a  commercial  supremacy  over  Den- 
mark, Norway,  and  Sweden,  —  in  fact,  from  the  east  coast 
of  England  to  Novgorod  they  almost  monopolize  trade. 
German  cities  in  general  flourished  in  the  later  Middle  Ages 
as  never  before:  the  great  southern  cities  of  Augsburg  and 
Nurnberg  reached  the  height  of  their  prosperity  about  1500. 

After  the  extinction  of  the  Hohenstaufens  the  Holy  Ro- 
man emperors  had  little  authority.  The  right  to  elect  the 
The  seven  emperor  had  by  this  time  become  limited  to 
electors  seven  of  the  leading  lords  of  the  land,  three  eccle- 

siastical, namely,  the  Archbishops  of  Cologne,  of  Mainz  or 
Mayence,  and  of  Trier  or  Treves,  and  four  secular  princes. 


GERMANY   IN   THE   LATER   MIDDLE   AGES    533 

each  bearing  a  different  title:  namely,  the  Count  Palatine  of 
the  Rhine,  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  the  Margrave  of  Branden- 
burg, and  the  King  of  Bohemia,  whose  electoral  right,  how- 
ever, was  sometimes  contested  by  the  Duke  of  Bavaria. 
These  seven  electors  in  many  cases  did  not  elect  the  son  of 
the  preceding  emperor,  but  chose  some  one  from  an  entirely 
different  family.  Often,  too,  they  imposed  conditions  upon 
the  man  whom  they  selected,  and  if  he  did  not  live  up  to 
these  preelection  promises  or  in  other  ways  disappointed 
them,  they  would  depose  him  and  choose  another.  Some- 
times they  disagreed  among  themselves  and  elected  two 
candidates  simultaneously. 

The  power  of  the  electors  was  permanently  defined  in 
written  legal  form  in  the  Golden  Bull  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  IV  in  1356,  but  this  was  for  the  most  The  Golden 
part  a  rehearsing  of  what  had  long  been  custom-  ^"^^ 
ary.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the  chief  constitutional  docu- 
ment in  the  history  of  medieval  Germany  and~thus  some- 
what comparable  to  Magna  Carta  in  English  history. 
Whereas  the  Great  Charter  shows  us  a  united  action  by  the 
baronage  which  was  something  akin  to  a  national  opposition 
and  which  later  perpetuated  itself  in  the  Parliament,  the 
Golden  Bull  reveals  the  great  local  lords  as  the  chief  power 
in  the  Empire  and  is  largely  devoted  to  their  ceremonial 
functions  and  political  privileges.  It  is  treason  to  attack 
their  persons;  they  elect  the  emperor  and  hold  the  chief 
offices  about  his  person;  in  their  own  territories  they  may 
coin  money  and  collect  taxes  and  hold  independent  courts 
of  their  own.  While  the  imperial  office  is  elective,  the  office 
and  lands  of  each  lay  electorate  are  to  be  transmitted  hered- 
itarily observing  the  rule  of  primogeniture  and  territorial 
indivisibility. 

The  electors,  however,  were  not  able  to  monopolize  such 
rights  for  themselves;  a  number  of  other  lords  were  equally 
independent  in  their  local  government.    But  the  Many  petty 
rule  of  primogeniture  was  not  universally  fol-  ^^'^^^^ 
lowed;   family  lands  were  sometimes   partitioned   among 
several  sons,  and  intermarriage  also  kept  altering  bounda- 


534        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

ries.  Germany  came  to  be  composed  of  two  or  three  hundred 
little  states.  There  were  ecclesiastical  principalities  ruled 
by  archbishops,  bishops,  and  abbots;  there  were  dukes  and 
counts  and  margraves  and  landgraves.  There  were  sim- 
ple knights  with  perhaps  a  solitary  castle  and  not  enough 
lands  and  subjects  to  support  them,  so  that  some  resorted 
to  plunder  and  private  warfare  and  were  hence  known  as 
"robber  knights."  But  even  such  nobles  often  claimed  to 
be  independent  sovereigns.  Then  there  were  the  free  or 
imperial  cities  which  also  undertook  to  govern  themselves 
and  recognized  only  the  vague  authority  of  the  emperor 
over  them.  The  territories  of  these  lords  and  states,  great 
and  small,  wound  in  and  out  among  one  another,  and  their 
jurisdictions  overlapped  and  conflicted  in  a  way  to  make  the 
preservation  of  peace  and  order  practically  impossible,  and 
feud  and  neighborhood  war  practically  certain.  And  it  was 
easy  for  criminals  and  outlaws  and  fugitive  serfs  to  escape 
across  the  frontier  of  one  petty  state  into  the  territory  of 
another. 

This  defect  was  to  some  extent  remedied  by  an  organiza- 
tion whose  members  in  the  fourteenth  century  existed  in  all 
Courts  of  parts  of  Germany  and  which  is  known  as  the 
the  Vehm  Vehm  ov  Fehm.  This  society  had  grown  out  of 
earlier  local  courts  among  the  people  in  Westphalia.  Some 
of  its  meetings  were  open  to  the  general  public,  but  others 
were  secret,  especially  those  concerned  with  criminal  justice 
and  with  witchcraft  or  heresy.  It  was  these  secret  tribunals 
that  were  of  the  most  importance  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.  The  penalty  for  any  outsider  who  in- 
truded at  one  of  these  secret  sessions  was  death.  Any  free- 
man, however,  who  was  of  honest  birth  and  character  was 
qualified  to  apply  for  membership  and  be  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  organization.  Such  an  initiate  took  a  sol- 
emn oath  to  assist  his  associates  in  serving  summonses  on 
accused  persons  and  in  executing  the  sentences  of  the 
Vehmic  courts,  and  was  then  informed  of  the  passwords  and 
secret  signs  by  which  the  Wissendi  of  the  Vehm  recognized 
one  another. 


GERMANY   IN   THE   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    535 

The  only  penalty  of  these  criminal  courts  was  death.  If 
three  or  more  members  of  the  Vehm  caught  a  criminal  red- 
handed  in  the  act,  they  killed  him  on  the  spot  Vehmic 
without  further  trial.  Otherwise  crimes  were  in-  procedure 
vestigated  by  the  method  of  sworn  inquest,  every  member 
of  the  Vehm  being  pledged  to  tell  what  he  could  of  crimes  in 
his  neighborhood.  Having  thus  determined  whom  they 
should  accuse  and  bring  to  trial,  the  next  step  was  to  sum- 
mon the  accused  before  the  Vehm,  This  was  done  mysteri- 
ously by  nailing  a  notice  on  a  tree  or  leaving  it  in  some  other 
spot  where  the  accused  would  be  sure  to  see  it,  but  would 
not  know  who  had  posted  it.  At  the  trial,  if  the  accused 
appeared  and  were  himself  a  member  of  the  Vehm,  he  could 
usually  clear  himself  of  the  charges  against  him  by  his  soli- 
tary oath.  If  not  himself  a  member,  he  would  have  to  pro- 
duce more  oath-helpers  who  were  members  to  swear  on  his 
behalf  than  had  already  taken  oath  against  him.  If,  how- 
ever, as  many  as  twenty-one  initiates  gave  their  oaths  in  his 
favor,  he  was  acquitted  anyway.  If  condemned  and  present, 
he  was  executed  without  delay.  Otherwise  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  first  member  of  the  Vehm  who  met  him  to  hang  him  to 
the  nearest  tree,  leaving  by  his  side  a  knife  marked  with  the 
cryptic  symbols,  "S.S.G.G.,"  to  show  that  the  Vehm  had 
done  its  work. 

This  impressive  method  of  intimidating  the  criminal 
classes,  which  reminds  us  of  lynchings  and  vigilance  com- 
mittees, but  whose  self-help  and  summary  pro-  its  popu- 
cedure  were  to  a  large  extent  a  survival  of  primi-  ^^""^^ 
tive  German  custom,  was  favorably  received  by  the  society 
of  the  time,  as  the  Vehm  proved  more  efficacious  than  any 
other  court.  Only  at  a  later  date  did  the  secret  character  of 
the  organization  breed  abuses  and  call  forth  complaints  and 
lead  finally  to  its  suppression.  In  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries  it  was  joined  by  entire  cities,  by  bishops 
and  great  lords,  and  finally  by  the  emperor  himself,  who  en- 
couraged this  rough-and-ready  way  of  dealing  with  offend- 
ers against  justice  because  he  had  nothing  better  to  offer  — 
indeed,  had  no  imperial  system  of  justice  at  all. 


536        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

It  was  almost  Impossible  for  the  emperor  to  maintain 
order  between  the  various  principalities  or  to  carry  out  any 
J     ,    ,  policy  dealing  with  Germany  as  a  whole,  espe- 

imperial  daily  sInce  no  Institutions  of  imperial  govern- 
^  '^^  ment  had  been  developed  In  the  past,  and  since 

the  heads  of  the  local  states  seldom  cooperated  loyally  with 
him  in  any  proposed  measures  for  the  general  welfare. 
Whether  from  these  reasons  or  from  mere  selfish  ambition, 
the  emperors  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  were  apt  to  employ 
the  term  of  their  office  and  their  Imperial  power  chiefly  in 
extending  their  own  family  possessions  within  or  without 
the  boundaries  of  the  Empire.  These  local  lordships  they 
could  hope  to  hand  on  to  their  sons,  whereas  the  Imperial 
office  might  go  to  some  other  family  upon  their  death.  For 
money,  troops,  administrative  assistance,  and  the  like,  the 
emperor  had  to  rely  mainly  upon  the  particular  state  of 
which  he  had  been  head  before  he  became  emperor.  If  he 
exploited  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  Empire,  he  would  be  liable 
to  ruin  the  possessions  of  which  his  family  had  hitherto  been 
reasonably  sure.  It  seemed  better  and  safer  to  him  to  ex- 
ploit the  Imperial  office,  to  which  he  had  been  fortunate 
enough  to  be  elected,  and  to  make  what  marriages  and  dip- 
lomatic alliances  and  territorial  acquisitions  he  could  for 
the  benefit  of  his  family. 

If  the  person  holding  the  Imperial  office  did  little  for  the 
good  of  Germany  and  of  the  Empire  as  a  whole,  the  general 
The  German  assembly  or  Diet  or  Reichstag  of  the  princes  and 
^^^^  nobility  did   still   less.    This  body  was  poorly 

attended  and  seldom  accomplished  anything  or  even  gave 
the  emperor  hearty  support  when  he  had  proposals  to  make 
for  the  general  welfare.  The  free  cities  desired  representa- 
tion in  this  body,  but  were  kept  out  by  the  feudal  lords  until 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  should  be  added  that 
most  of  the  principalities  Into  which  the  Empire  was  di- 
vided had,  if  they  were  of  any  size,  their  own  assemblies  of 
the  local  nobility  with  whom  the  head  of  the  state  had  to 
consult  in  all  important  legislation  and  financial  matters. 

A  rapid  chronological  survey  of  the  emperors  of  Germany 


GERMANY   IN   THE   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    537 

from  the  end  of  the  House  of  Hohenstaufen  to  the  beginning 
of  the  unbroken  succession  of  the  House  of  The  Inter- 
Hapsburg  will  supply  some  specific  illustration  of  '■^gnum 
the  general  statements  made  in  the  preceding  paragraphs. 
From  1256  to  1273  no  one  was  generally  recognized  as  em- 
peror. There  had  been  conflicting  elections  in  1257  of  Rich- 
ard of  Cornwall,  brother  of  Henry  III  of  England,  and 
Alfonso  the  Wise  of  Castile.  Both  these  foreigners  contin- 
ued to  be  rank  outsiders,  for  Richard  returned  to  England 
after  a  year  and  a  half,  while  Alfonso  gave  practical  demon- 
stration of  his  wisdom  by  not  coming  to  Germany  at  all. 

During  this  period  of  interregnum  King  Ottocar  II  of 
Bohemia,  an  ally  of  the  pope  against  the  Hohenstaufens, 
was  the  strongest  prince  in  the  Empire,  and  ottocar  II 
Bohemia  became  under  his  rule  one  of  the  most  °^  Bohemia 
powerful  states  of  Europe.  Indeed,  Ottocar  brought  to- 
gether under  his  rule  districts  and  peoples  and  tongues  sug- 
gestive of  the  present  Austria-Hungary;  namely,  Bohemia, 
Moravia,  Austria,  Styria,  Carinthia,  and  Carniola.  Hun- 
gary itself,  however,  was  not  under  his  rule,  and  its  king, 
Bela  IV,  tried  to  resist  his  expansion.  Ottocar  forwarded 
the  movement  of  German  colonists  eastward  by  encouraging 
them  to  enter  Bohemia,  where  they  brought  woodland  under 
cultivation  and  helped  to  found  many  new  cities.  He  him- 
self twice  participated  in  crusades  to  Prussia  to  aid  the 
Teutonic  Knights  in  extending  the  territory  of  Christendom 
northeastward. 

After  the  death  of  his  friend  Richard  of  Cornwall  in  1272, 
Ottocar  became  a  candidate  for  the  imperial  ofiice.  But 
the  other  princes  regarded  him  as  already  Rudolf  of 
too  powerful,  and  instead  chose  in  1273  Count  Hapsburg 
Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  one  of  the  lesser  lords  in  the  Empire. 
He  was  of  a  family  hitherto  obscure,  but  already  rapidly 
rising  and  destined  to  become  one  of  the  greatest  ruling 
houses  in  Europe.  It  still  reigns  in  Austria-Hungary.  The 
original  possessions  of  the  family  were  in  Alsace;  to  these 
they  had  added  various  fiefs  and  offices  in  what  is  now 
Switzerland.    Rudolf  had  increased  his  territories  by  mar- 


538        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

riage,  inheritance,  and  war.  He  had  also  shown  military 
ability  in  the  employ  of  the  cities  of  Basel,  Zurich,  and 
Strassburg,  and  had  been  marshal  at  the  Bohemian  court. 
He  was  fifty-five  years  old  when  chosen  emperor  and  was  a 
man  of  unusual  height  —  seven  feet  tall,  says  a  chronicle  of 
the  time.  He  was  an  affable,  energetic,  and  popular  warrior. 

Rudolf's  main  achievement  was  to  recover  Austria, 
Styria,  Carniola,  and  Carinthia  from  Ottocar  and  then  to 
keep  them  —  with  the  exception  of  Carinthia  which  he  gave 
to  his  ally,  the  Count  of  Tyrol  —  as  his  own  possessions. 
He  was  so  occupied  with  Austria  that  he  did  not  intervene  in 
Italian  affairs,  and  allowed  French  influence  to  increase  in 
Lorraine  and  the  County  of  Burgundy.  His  scheme  of  re- 
constituting the  Kingdom  of  Aries  in  the  regions  along  the 
Rhone  failed.  Especially  in  the  entire  north  of  Germany 
did  he  exert  little  influence.  In  the  south  he  tried  to  check 
private  wars  by  "land-peaces"  —  in  which  the  states  of  a 
certain  region  would  cooperate  to  keep  the  peace  —  and 
to  collect  taxes  especially  from  the  towns,  which  during  the 
absence  of  Frederick  II  in  Italy  and  the  Interregnum  had 
attained  to  prosperity  and  self-government.  Sometimes  he 
summoned  representatives  of  the  cities  to  him  in  order  to 
procure  a  subsidy,  but  not  in  company  with  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  lay  princes.  Often  he  went  instead  to  the  cities 
or  dealt  with  each  separately,  so  that  he  failed  to  establish 
a  Parliament  or  Estates  General  as  his  contemporaries, 
Edward  I  and  Philip  IV,  did. 

Rudolf  was  not  able  to  hand  on  the  Empire  to  his  son 
Albert.  Instead  the  electors  chose  Adolf  of  Nassau  (1292- 
U  s  and  1 298),  but  he  proved  even  more  eager  to  increase 

downs  of  the  the  possessions  of  his  own  family  at  the  expense 
Hapsburgs      ^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^  Rudolf  had  been.    The  electors 

accordingly  turned  back  to  Albert  who  met  Adolf  in  a  battle 
which  was  decided  by  Adolf's  death.  After  Albert's  reign, 
however,  the  electors  again  passed  by  the  House  of  Haps- 
burg  and  chose  Henry  VII  of  Luxemburg  (1308-13 13),  who 
proceeded  to  acquire  the  Kingdom  of  Bohemia  for  himself 
and  his  descendants.    In  13 14  there  was  another  double 


GERMANY   IN   THE   LATER   MIDDLE   AGES    539 

election  and  both  Louis  of  Bavaria  and  the  Hapsburg, 
Frederick  of  Austria,  claimed  the  crown.  Louis  finally  won 
out.  The  House  of  Hapsburg,  however,  continued  to  hold 
Austria  and  surrounding  territories,  and  in  1363  added  the 
Tyrol  or  eastern  Alps  to  its  possessions. 

Louis  IV  belonged  to  the  Wittelsbach  family  which  is  still 
the  royal  line  in  Bavaria.  After  him  the  Luxemburg  House 
returned  to  power  in  the  person  of  Charles  IV  Houses  of 
(1347-1378),  who  published  the  Golden  Bull,  and  andtuxem- 
his  son,  Wenzel,  who  was  deposed  in  1400.  burg 
Wenzel  was  so  addicted  to  intoxicants  that  any  one  wishing 
to  make  sure  of  finding  him  sufficiently  sober  to  transact 
state  business  did  well  to  interview  him  early  in  the  day. 
He  was  liable  to  be  found  under  the  table  by  the  end  of 
breakfast.  It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  history  that  one  of  the 
chief  extant  monuments  associated  with  this  emperor  is  the 
bronze  font  in  which  he  was  baptized  at  St.  Sebaldus  Kirche, 
Nlirnberg.  Wenzel's  reign  was  marked  by  wars  between 
leagues  of  cities,  leagues  of  knights,  and  the  greater  terri- 
torial princes.  There  were  associations  of  knights  in  Hesse, 
Westphalia,  Franconia,  southern  Germany,  and  along  the 
Rhine.  The  two  chief  city  leagues  were  those  of  Swabia  and 
of  the  Rhine.  The  Swabian  League  was  formed  in  1376 
when  fourteen  towns  banded  together  to  resist  new  taxes 
levied  by  Charles  IV.  In  two  years'  time  the  membership 
increased  to  eighty-nine  towns.  Wenzel  was  helpless  before 
this  situation,  but  the  princes  inflicted  some  defeats  upon 
the  towns,  until  in  1389  both  sides  agreed  to  dissolve  their 
leagues. 

After  Rupert,  who  had  previously  been  Count  of  the 
Palatinate,  had  disputed  the  imperial  title  for  ten  years 
with  Wenzel,  who  refused  to  remain  deposed,   j^^j  ^^^ 
Sigismund,  a  younger  son  of  Charles  IV,  was  Sigismund, 
elected  emperor  in  14 10.    He  finally  prevailed  ^410-1437 
upon  his  brother  Wenzel  to  yield  the  throne  to  him,  and  out- 
lived another  claimant,  named  Jobst.  Sigismund  was  full  of 
schemes,  but  for  want  of  support  was  unable  to  carry  most 
of  them  out.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  getting  together  a 


540        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

great  church  council  at  Constance  which  healed  a  triple 
schism  in  the  Papacy.  He  found  it  so  hard  to  get  any 
money  with  which  to  pay  his  expenses  while  in  the  Empire 
that  he  absented  himself  from  it  during  much  of  his  reign, 
especially  since  he  had  important  possessions  and  problems 
outside  of  Germany.  Sigismund  tacitly  confessed  his  in- 
ability to  maintain  order  and  justice  in  the  Empire  by  join- 
ing the  courts  of  the  Vehm. 

Sigismund  also  established  two  German  dynasties  that 
are  still  ruling.  The  Wettin  line,  whom  he  made  Electors 
Origin  of  °^  Saxony,  are  now  its  kings.  The  Hohenzollerns, 
the  Hohen-     whom  his  father  had  made  princes  of  the  Empire, 

zoliGrns 

he  further  raised  to  Electors  of  Brandenburg, 
which  in  modern  times  they  have  developed  into  the  power- 
ful kingdom  of  Prussia  and  the  great  German  Empire.  The 
Hohenzollerns  get  their  name  from  the  height  of  Zollern  in 
the  Swabian  Alps  where  their  original  castle  was  located. 
In  1 191  Count  Frederick  III  of  Hohenzollern  succeeded  the 
Burgraveof  Niirnberg,  whose  daughter  he  had  married,  and 
Frederick  VI  was  still  Burgrave  of  Niirnberg  when  Sigis- 
mund made  him  an  elector.  But  the  family  had  also  ac- 
quired Ansbach,  Bayreuth,  Culmbach,  and  estates  in  Aus- 
tria. In  1427  the  Hohenzollerns  sold  out  their  rights  as 
burgraves  to  the  city  of  Niirnberg. 

With  the  death  of  Sigismund  in  1437  the  House  of  Luxem- 
burg became  extinct  in  the  male  line,  so  his  son-in-law,  Al- 
Imperial  bcrt  II  of  Austria,  was  chosen  as  his  successor, 
comes  hered-  With  Albert  began  a  practically  unbroken  suc- 
itary  in  the  ccssion  of  the  Hapsburg  family  to  the  imperial 
Hapsburg  office  Until  its  abolition  by  Napoleon  in  1806. 
Frederick  HI,  who  followed  the  brief  rule  of  Albert  II,  had 
a  long  reign  from  1440  to  1493  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
brilliant  but  erratic  son,  Maximilian. 

After  the  downfall  of  the  Hohenstaufens  no  emperor 
Italy,  the  visited  Italy  until  Henry  VII,  who  died  there 
thTStern^  without  having  accomplished  much.  The  efforts 
frontier  of  the  next  emperor,  Louis  of  Bavaria,  to  main- 

tain an  Italian  policy  involved  him  in  a  struggle  with  the 


GERMANY   IN  THE   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    541 

Papacy  in  which  he  was  humiliated  and  all  but  lost  his 
throne.  His  successor,  Charles  IV,  was  inactive  in  Italy  and 
submissive  to  the  Papacy,  and,  although  he  went  to  Rome 
to  be  crowned,  promised  the  pope  not  to  stay  there  over- 
night. The  pope  himself  at  this  time  was  still  at  Avignon, 
but  was  none  the  less  jealous  of  any  imperial  activity  in 
Italy.  By  Sigismund's  time  the  pope  had  returned  to  Rome 
and  quite  a  ceremony  was  made  of  that  emperor's  corona- 
tion, which  did  not  occur  until  almost  the  close  of  his  reign. 
Frederick  III  was  the  last  emperor  to  be  crowned  at  Rome. 
One  might  almost  say  that  with  him  the  medieval  or  Holy 
Roman  Empire  ended  and  the  Hapsburg  monarchy  began. 
Through  the  later  Middle  Ages  first  the  Kings  of  France 
and  then  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  pushed  their  boundaries 
eastward  at  the  expense  of  fiefs  supposed  to  belong  to  the 
Empire. 

The  leagues  of  the  Rhine  and  Swabian  cities  to  which  we 
have  already  referred  were  not  permanent  federations.  But 
out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old  Hohenstaufen  Duchy  Origin  of 
of  Swabia  developed  from  the  thirteenth  cen-  Qmfedera- 
tury  on  a  union  of  cantons  and  towns  which  was  tion 
the  beginning  of  modern  Switzerland.  The  first  stages  of 
this  development  were  made  at  the  expense  of  the  House  of 
Hapsburg.  The  oldest  historical  document  concerning  the 
Swiss  Confederation  which  has  come  down  to  us  dates  from 
1 29 1  and  records  a  defensive  league  formed  between  the 
three  forest  cantons  of  Uri,  Schwyz,  and  Unterwalden, 
located  about  the  Lake  of  Lucerne.  There  had,  however, 
been  an  earlier  union,  but  the  story  of  William  Tell  is  a 
later  legend.  This  defensive  league  was  against  the  Haps- 
burg family,  whose  feudal  claims  in  these  territories  the  na- 
tives had  disputed,  asserting  their  right  to  self-government 
and  to  immediate  relations  with  the  imperial  authority.  In 
short,  they  rebelled  against  their  feudal  lords  and  became 
rural  communes  like  so  many  other  places  in  western  Eu- 
rope. Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  had  recognized  only  Uri  as  di- 
rectly under  imperial  authority.  Adolf  of  Nassau  added 
Schwyz,  and  Henry  VII  extended  the  privilege  to  Unter- 


542         THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

walden.  Both  these  emperors  were  hostile  to  the  Hapsburgs 
and  glad  to  encourage  their  foes. 

Although  supposedly  a  league  for  defense  only,  the  three 
forest  cantons  speedily  attacked  and  plundered  neighboring 
g^j  Hapsburg  possessions.    In  13 15  the  Hapsburgs 

medieval  led  an  army  against  them  but  were  defeated  in 
expansion  ^^^  battle  of  Morgarten.  Other  rural  districts 
and  towns  which  desired  to  escape  from  Hapsburg  control 
joined  the  three  forest  cantons  during  the  next  half-cen- 
tury. Some  of  them  were  temporarily  recovered  by  the 
Hapsburgs,  but  at  Sempach  in  1386  and  at  Nafels  in  1388 
the  Austrians  were  defeated.  They  then  recognized  the 
independence  of  eight  cantons,  including  the  three  original 
ones,  Lucerne,  Glarus,  Zug,  and  the  towns  of  Berne  and 
Zurich.  In  1403  the  Bishop  of  Sion  and  the  peasants  of  the 
Valais  were  brought  under  the  protection  of  the  league,  in 
141 1  Appenzell,  in  1412  the  town  of  St.  Gall.  By  aggression 
the  Swiss  also  added  to  the  territory  under  their  control  a 
region  to  the  south  of  the  St.  Gotthard  Pass,  and  to  the  north- 
east of  the  Lake  of  Lucerne  the  Aargau  together  with  the 
original  Hapsburg  castle.  The  confederates  now  reached 
from  the  Italian  Lakes  to  the  Jura  Mountains  and  the  Lake 
of  Constance.  Jealousy  and  dissension  broke  out,  however, 
between  the  rural  and  urban  members  of  the  confederation, 
and  when  Zurich  was  worsted  in  a  local  war  with  Schwyz 
it  allied  with  Austria  against  the  Forest  Cantons.  But  they 
again  proved  unconquerable,  and  in  1450  Zurich  returned  to 
the  league  and  Austria  gave  up  its  hopes  of  recovering  the 
Aargau. 

Like  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  most  of  his  successors  in  the 
Empire  had  very  slight  authority  in  the  north  of  Germany 
The  Hanse-  and  paid  little  attention  to  that  region.  There- 
atic  League  ^qj-^  ^^le  towns,  deprived  of  imperial  protection 
and  free  from  imperial  interference,  formed  leagues  among 
themselves  for  mutual  protection  and  trade.  Gradually 
these  smaller  local  unions  became  merged  in  one  extensive 
Hanseatic  League,  so  called  from  the  word  "hanse"  mean- 
ing a  gild  or  union  for  trade.    The  traders  of  northern  Ger- 


GERMANY   IN   THE   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    543 

many  had  early  pushed  into  foreign  countries.  For  instance, 
at  Wisby  off  the  Swedish  coast  on  the  island  of  Gotland  mer- 
chants from  as  many  as  thirty  German  towns  were  repre- 
sented and  formed  an  association  —  some  were  from  places 
as  far  west  as  Cologne  and  Utrecht.  It  was  through  such  co- 
operation in  foreign  trade  that  the  Hanseatic  League  was 
formed,  a  loose  union  primarily  for  commercial  purposes  of 
some  seventy  cities.  Just  when  it  came  into  existence  would 
be  hard  to  say,  and  its  membership  fluctuated  a  great  deal. 
The  towns  in  it  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  formed  a  po- 
litical federation,  but  they  held  assemblies,  arranged  with 
one  another  for  the  extradition  of  criminals,  and  sometimes 
waged  war.  In  1367  fifty-seven  towns  declared  war  upon 
the  Kings  of  Norway  and  Denmark  and  defeated  them  in 
several  naval  engagements. 

The  league  secured  special  trading  privileges  and  planted 
settlements  composed  of  its  own  members  in  various  for- 
eign ports.  Its  chief  colonies  of  this  sort  were  its  control 
at  Bergen  on  the  Norwegian  coast,  Novgorod  in  "/^'"n'^f.^" 
Russia,  Bruges  in  Flanders,  and  London  in  Eng-  and  North 
land.  These  posts  were  sometimes  strongly  ^^ 
fortified,  as  in  the  case  of  the  "Steelyard"  in  London,  and 
the  Hanse  representatives  were  subjected  to  strict  disci- 
pline, and  were  forbidden  to  marry  during  their  residence 
abroad.  As  if  these  restrictions  were  not  sufficient,  newly 
arriving  apprentices  at  Bergen  were  initiated  into  the  Hanse 
by  numerous  floggings  and  duckings  or  by  being  hauled  up 
by  a  rope  through  a  smoky  chimney  and  made  to  answer 
questions  en  route.  At  Bergen  and  Novgorod  the  Hanse 
merchants  became  all-powerful,  largely  monopolizing  the 
trade  of  Norway  and  shutting  off  the  Russians  from  the 
Baltic  Sea  and  from  direct  intercourse  with  western  Eu- 
rope. And  while  Hanseatic  merchants  had  many  privileges 
in  Bruges  and  London,  they  tried  to  keep  the  commerce  of 
the  Baltic  entirely  for  themselves  and  to  exclude  traders  of 
all  other  nations  from  their  home  towns.  The  fisheries  in  the 
Baltic  and  North  Seas  were  a  source  of  great  profit,  since 
in  the  Middle  Ages  every  one  abstained  from  meat  on  Friday 


544        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  monks  on  most  other  days.  Wax  for  candles  and  amber 
for  rosaries  were  other  Northern  commodities  then  in  great 
demand.  Other  products  in  which  there  was  an  extensive 
trade  were  timber,  furs,  certain  metals,  grain,  and  beer. 

The  prosperity  and  greatness  of  the  Hanseatic  League 
continued  through  the  fifteenth  century.  Then  came  its 
gradual  decline  owing  to  such  events  as  the  cap- 
ture of  Novgorod  in  1478  by  Ivan  of  Russia, 
changes  in  ocean  currents  and  in  the  location  of  the  herring 
fishing,  the  rise  of  the  Dutch  and  English  peoples  to  mari- 
time and  commercial  power,  and  the  confusion  in  Germany 
caused  by  the  Protestant  Revolt  and  the  religious  wars 
which  followed  it. 

The  Teutonic  Knights  not  only  carried  on  a  long  crusade 
against  the  heathen  Prussians  and  other  non-German  peo- 
pies  of  Poland,  Lithuania,  and  western  Russia, 
Teutonic         but  established  a  territorial  state  along  the  east 
Knights  shore  of  the  Baltic  and  encouraged  German  col- 

onization in  this  area.  About  1202  the  town  of  Riga  had 
been  founded  by  a  German  who  became  its  first  bishop  and 
who  employed  the  Brethren  of  the  Sword  in  conquering 
Livonia  from  the  Wends  and  Letts.  Ten  years  later  a  monk 
tried  to  play  the  same  role  as  Bishop  of  Prussia,  where  he 
founded  the  Knights  of  Dobrzin.  This  effort,  however,  was 
a  failure.  So  in  1228  the  Teutonic  Knights,  hitherto  active 
in  the  Holy  Land,  were  invited  in  and  began  in  the  next  year 
their  conquest  of  what  is  now  called  East  Prussia.  The  Grand 
Master  of  the  Order  was  made  by  Frederick  II  a  prince  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  The  two  other  military  orders 
which  have  been  mentioned  soon  amalgamated  with  the 
Teutonic  Order,  which  became  very  popular  and  was  loaded 
with  gifts.  Early  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  Knights, 
whose  activities  had  at  first  been  eastward  from  the  Vistula, 
acquired  Pomerelia  to  the  west  of  that  river  and  thus  shut 
off  Poland  from  the  Baltic.  In  1346  Denmark  ceded  Estho- 
nia  to  the  Knights.  The  numerous  towns  which  sprang  up 
along  the  east  coast  of  the  Baltic  as  a  result  of  the  Knights' 
conquests  usually  joined  the  Hanseatic  League.   The  four- 


546        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

teenth  century  saw  the  Knights  at  the  height  of  their 
power  and  constantly  campaigning  against  the  Lithuanians. 
Their  territory  extended  along  the  Baltic  coast  from  West 
Prussia  to  the  Gulf  of  Finland.  But  the  conversion  of  the 
Lithuanians  deprived  them  of  the  excuse  for  any  further 
conquests,  and  the  union  after  1386  of  Poland  and  Lith- 
uania under  one  ruler  produced  a  neighbor  who  was  too 
strong  for  them.  In  the  fifteenth  century  they  were  de- 
feated by  Poland  and  their  power  was  confined  to  East  Prus- 
sia where  it  had  started. 

We  have  not  time  to  consider  in  detail  the  medieval  his- 
tory of  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden.  Their  kings  were 
The  three  elected,  as  was  the  custom  also  in  Poland,  Bo- 
vi^nkkig"-  hernia,  and  Hungary.  The  clergy  and  nobility 
doms  as  a  rule  during  this  period  increased  in  landed 

property  and  political  power  at  the  expense  both  of  the 
Crown  and  the  mass  of  peasant  proprietors,  who  tended  to 
sink  toward  serfdom.  Trade  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Han- 
seatic  League  and  the  chief  towns  passed  under  German 
influence.  For  the  rest,  the  course  of  events  in  these  North- 
ern lands  bore  a  general  resemblance  to  that  in  other 
European  countries.  They  felt  the  influence  of  the  Hil- 
debrandine  reforms  in  the  Church  and  of  the  Cistercian 
monks;  they  participated  in  the  crusades  and  sent  scholars 
to  Paris  and  other  universities;  they  had  their  troubles  with 
papal  legates  and  interdicts,  with  unpalatable  royal  tax- 
ation and  depreciation  of  the  coinage.  Save  for  Norse  and 
Icelandic  literature,  they  were  somewhat  behind  the  devel- 
opment of  civilization  in  western  and  southern  Europe. 
For  instance,  while  Sweden  was  nominally  converted  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  faith  was 
not  really  spread  throughout  the  land  nor  the  Church 
thoroughly  organized  until  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Similarly  the  first  Scandinavian  universities  were 
founded  at  Upsala  in  1476  and  at  Copenhagen  in  1479. 

Denmark  was  a  great  power  from  1 182  to  1223,  with  sway 
over  such  cities  as  Hamburg  and  Lubeck  and  over  the  re- 
gions of  Mecklenburg,  Pomerania,  Pomerelia,  Prussia,  and 


GERMANY   IN  THE   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    547 

Esthonia.  But  then  its  empire  underwent  speedy  dissolu- 
tion, and  later  Denmark  itself  seemed  liable  to  divide  into 
several  petty  states.  In  1397  the  three  Scandinavian  king- 
doms came  under  one  sovereign  in  the  Union  of  Kalmar, 
which  did  not  benefit  nor  please  any  one  of  the  three  coun- 
tries and  which  was  maintained  with  difficulty  and  occa- 
sional secessions  during  the  remainder  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Source  Selections. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  selection  152, 
pp.  267-69,  "Union  of  the  Forest  Cantons";  selection  160,  a  and  b, 
pp.  306-08,  "Acquisition  of  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg  by  the  Hohen- 
zollern  Family." 

The  Golden  Bull. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History,  pp.  283-305; 
or,  more  fully,  Henderson,  Select  Historical  Documents  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  pp.  220-61.         i 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

W.  Stubbs,  Germany  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages,  edited  by  Hassall.  Any 
chapter  from  the  third,  which  deals  with  the  Interregnum,  to  the  ninth, 
on  the  reign  of  Sigismund. 

Rise  of  the  Swiss  Confederation. 

Coolidge  on  Switzerland  history,  pp.  246-51  of  the  appropriate  volume 

of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  nth  edition. 
Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  vii,  pp.  126-38. 

The  Hanseatic  League. 

Zimmern,  Hansa  Towns,  pp.  49,  95-96,  137-40,  143-47,  I54~55.  166-68, 

191-93- 
Henderson,  Short  History  of  Germany,  diap.  viii,  pp.  181-202. 
Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  viii,  pp.  419-51. 
Article  on  the  "Hanseatic  League,"  in  the  Encyclopcedia  Britannica, 

nth  edition. 

The  Teutonic  Order  and  Poland. 

Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  xix,  pp.  452-67. 
Henderson,  Short  History  of  Germany,  chap,  viii,  pp.  172-81. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

EASTERN  EUROPE  IN  THE  LATER  MIDDLE  AGES 

Again  we  must  turn  back  to  the  thirteenth  century,  this 
time  to  trace  the  history  of  eastern  Europe  from  the  Mongol 
invasions  of  1241  to  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the 
Turks  in  1453  —  the  same  date  that  marked  the  close  of  the 
Hundred  Years  War.  In  the  preceding  year,  1452,  had 
occurred  the  last  coronation  of  a  Holy  Roman  emperor  at 
Rome  —  that  of  Frederick  III. 

The  chief  event  in  the  history  of  Asia  and  of  eastern 
Europe  in  the  thirteenth  century  was  the  rise  of  the  vast 
The  Mongol  empire  of  the  Tartars  or  Mongols  and  their  in- 
invasions  vasions  as  far  west  as  central  Europe  and  the 
Balkans.  The  Tartars  were  of  a  kindred  race  to  the  Huns 
and  other  Asiatic  mounted  nomads  whose  incursions  west- 
ward we  have  already  noted,  and  whom  they  closely  re- 
sembled in  life  and  customs.  But  their  home  was  farther 
east,  and  they  were  of  Mongolian  rather  than  Ural-Altaian 
stock.  They  soon,  however,  included  the  Altaian  nomads 
in  their  empire.  The  founder  of  this  Mongol  Empire  was 
Jenghiz  Khan,  under  whom  the  Tartars  united  in  a  vast 
conquering  horde  which  swept  over  Asia  in  a  career  of  vic- 
tory after  victory.  Early  in  the  thirteenth  century  they 
broke  through  the  Great  Wall  of  China  and  took  Peking; 
they  rapidly  subdued  central  Asia;  and  about  1222  they 
reached  Europe  and  defeated  the  Russian  princes  and  the 
Rumanians  who  lived  between  the  Don  and  the  Danube. 
The  Rumanians  and  the  Russians  continued  their  resist- 
ance, nevertheless,  and  received  aid  from  the  Bulgars  and 
the  Magyars,  who  were  respectively  located  south  of  the 
Danube  and  east  of  the  Carpathian  and  the  Transylvanian 
Mountains.  Then  the  ruler  of  the  western  dominions  of  the 
Mongols,  Batu  by  name,  a  grandson  of  Jenghiz  Khan,  sent 
east  for  reinforcements.    In  1237  this  new  wave  of  nomads 


EASTERN   EUROPE   IN   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES     549 

reached  the  Volga;  the  next  year  they  took  Moscow;  in 
1239  they  so  defeated  the  Rumanians  that  these  took  ref- 
uge in  Hungary;  in  the  following  year  Kiev,  Cracow,  and 
Breslau  were  sacked;  in  1241  King  Bela  of  Hungary  was 
completely  crushed  and  his  army  almost  annihilated.  The 
cruel  and  savage  Tartar  host  then  fearfully  devastated  the 
Hungarian  plain,  and  also  ravaged  Bulgaria,  Serbia,  and 
Bosnia.  Then  news  of  the  death  of  the  Great  Khan  caused 
their  withdrawal  eastward.  Much,  however,  of  what  is  now 
Russia  remained  under  their  rule  until  almost  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  and  for  a  still  longer  period  was  more 
influenced  in  its  civilization  by  the  Orient  than  by  the  West- 
ern world.  A  collection  of  Russian  laws  which  has  come 
down  to  us  from  the  period  before  the  Mongol  invasion 
shows  that  the  country  was  then  little  behind  western  Eu- 
rope in  its  customs.  This  past  civilization  was  blotted  out 
and  future  development  was  long  retarded  by  the  Asiatic 
inroads.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Golden  Horde,  as  the  west- 
ernmost encampment  and  dominion  of  the  Mongols  was 
called,  extended  from  Turkestan  and  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the 
river  Don  and  to  Novgorod,  a  city  which  the  Mongols  had 
been  unable  to  capture,  but  which  was  compelled  in  1260  to 
pay  tribute  to  the  khan. 

Mohammedan  as  well  as  Christian  lands  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  the  Mongols.   Persia  was  terribly  ravaged  by  their 
attacks  and  some  cities  ended  their  existence.  j^o^itoI 
Even  Bagdad  was  taken  and  sacked  in  1258,  but  conquests 

,  c  '.     r  •,         from  Islam 

soon  recovered  a  measure  of  its  lormer  prosperity, 
although  its  greatness  under  the  Abbassid  caliphs  was  gone. 
After  taking  Bagdad  the  Mongols  had  pressed  on  into  Syria, 
but  were  driven  out  by  the  Mamelukes  of  Egypt.  These 
Mamelukes  were  captives  in  war  of  whom  the  Seljuk  sultans 
had  composed  their  bodyguard,  but  one  of  them  had  recently 
made  himself  Sultan  of  Egypt. 

The  Mongols  at  first  struck  Christian  Europe  with  much 
the  same  horror  that  the  Huns  had  produced,  and  many 
looked  for  them  to  fulfill  the  prophecies  concerning  Antichrist 
and  Gog  and  Magog.  Then,  however,  came  hopes  of  using 


550       THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

them  as  allies  against  the  Moslems  in  the  East  and  even  of 
Relations  of  converting  them  to  Christianity.  Ambassadors 
Christendom  were  dispatched  from  the  West  to  the  court  of 
Kf  n*Y  ^^^  khan,  and  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  also 
Empire  went  out  to  the  Far  East,  where  hitherto  only 

Nestorian  Christians  had  been  known.  Of  the  letters,  re- 
ports, and  books  written  by  such  travelers  to  Asia  and  by 
merchants  like  Marco  Polo,  we  have  already  spoken  in  dis- 
cussing the  knowledge  of  geography  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
Kublai  Khan,  at  whose  court  and  in  whose  employ  Marco 
Polo  spent  so  many  years,  had  taken  up  his  residence  in 
Peking  and  had  adopted  much  of  Chinese  civilization,  al- 
though in  the  summer  he  still  migrated,  in  nomad  fashion, 
north  to  his  native  Mongolia.  The  envoys  from  the  West 
failed  to  effect  much  of  diplomatic  advantage  in  their  long- 
distance interviews  with  the  khan,  and  the  missionaries  had 
no  lasting  success.  The  western  Tartars  were  gradually  con- 
verted to  Islam,  and  those  in  China  adopted  the  heathen 
faiths  current  there.  In  1 368-1 370,  however,  the  Chinese 
revolted  and  drove  the  Mongols  out  of  their  land. 

The  fact  that  the  whole  breadth  of  Asia  was  under  the 
despotic  rule  of  a  single  head  made  It  easy  to  trade  with  the 
T,    ,       ,      Far  East.    The  Great  Khan  was  feared  far  and 

1  rade  routes        ^  _         ^  _    ■ 

to  the  wide,  for  he  maintained  relays  of  swift  horse- 

men between  the  different  parts  of  his  extensive 
empire,  to  keep  him  informed  of  what  was  going  on;  and  his 
dreaded  cavalry  would  have  descended  rapidly  upon  any 
region  that  disregarded  his  commands  or  attacked  persons 
who  were  under  his  protection.  The  shortest  trade  route  to 
Cathay  and  Peking  from  Europe  was  the  northern  one  from 
ports  at  the  mouth  of  the  Don  or  on  the  Sea  of  Azov.  This 
ran  north  of  the  Black  Sea,  beyond  the  Volga,  past  the 
Caspian  Sea  and  then  across  the  expanse  of  central  Asia. 
From  Trebizond  on  the  south  shore  of  the  Black  Sea,  and 
also  from  the  Clllcian  ports  of  Lesser  Armenia,  trade  routes 
converged  on  Erzerum,  and  thence  led  to  Tabriz,  which  was 
the  chief  market  of  western  Asia  under  Mongol  rule.  A 
Spanish  traveler  in  1404  described  it  as  containing  over  two 


The  Mongol  Empire  and  Routes 


0     100  21111  :;i II I  41  III  .■ 
Trade  Routes 

■  Carjiini'a  journey  from  Cracow  to  Karakon 
.  ]!iijruk'»  journey  from  the  Crimea  to 

i;arakorum  and  return  to  Asia  Minor 
Marco  Polo's  journey  from  I^eseer  Armenia 
and  return 

■  Ciinquests  of  Tiiiuir     (or  Tamerlane  ) 


Christian  territory  overrun  hy  the  __^.._ 

Mongols  1   •k 

Mohaiumedan  territory  overrun  by  the  V^^ 


r -^ 1  .viojiam 

P        '    ~'  MoULTol 

1 1  Tihct  and  Chinese  Emiiiie  comiucrcd  by  the 

I 1  Mongols 


~\  Homes  of  the  nomads  in  Mon-olia.  Turke-tan.  etc. 

l_ — — 

60'      l.oniJlMde     West      from     CJr.einvieh 


EASTERN   EUROPE   IN   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    551 

hundred  thousand  dwelling-houses  and  as  reported  to  have 
once  had  an  even  greater  population.  From  this  center 
routes  continued  east  to  Bokhara  and  Samarkand,  while 
others  led  south  to  the  great  port  of  Ormuz  on  the  Persian 
Gulf,  whence  one  could  proceed  to  India  and  Ceylon  by 
sea.  There  was  also,  of  course,  the  southernmost  route  by 
the  Red  Sea  which  did  not  pass  through  Mongol  territory. 
Russia  remained  under  the  sway  of  the  Golden  Horde 
until  nearly  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  Mongols 
allowed  the  Russians  their  own  religion  and  to  ^     . 

,     .  ,  ,         .  ,        Russia 

some  extent  their  own  laws  and  pnnces,  who 
were,  however,  liable  to  be  executed  at  any  moment  by 
order  of  the  khan.  But  the  Mongols  forced  the  Russians 
to  serve  in  their  armies,  burdened  them  with  oppressive 
taxes,  and  enslaved  them  if  they  did  not  pay.  Under  such 
conditions  economic  or  intellectual  progress  was  impos- 
sible. Finally,  about  1480  the  Golden  Horde  broke  up  and 
Russia  escaped  from  the  Mongol  yoke.  Ivan  HI  of  Mos- 
cow ( 1 462-1 505)  now  tried  to  bring  all  Russia  under  his 
rule.  He  ruined  Novgorod  and  drove  out  the  Hanseatic 
merchants,  and  carried  on  successful  campaigns  against 
the  Lithuanians. 

While  both  Poland  and  Hungary  had  suffered  terribly 
from  the  first  Mongol  invasions,  they  escaped  the  later 
domination  of  the  Golden  Horde.    These  two  Kingdoms 
countries  and  Bohemia  were  contiguous,  and  as  of  central 
a  result  tended  to  form  dynastic  unions  or  to 
engage  in  wars  over  questions  of  boundaries  with  one  an- 
other.    In  all  three  countries  the  kingship  was  elective. 
Silesia,  comprising  the  upper  valley  of  the  Oder,  was  the 
disputed   territory   lying   between   Poland   and    Bohemia. 
Galicia,  just  north  of  the  Carpathians,  was  the  frontier 
region  between  Poland  and  Hungary,  while  Moravia  inter- 
vened between  Hungary  and  Bohemia. 

During  much  of  the  twelfth   and   thirteenth   centuries 
Poland  had  been  divided  into  several  contending  „  ,     , 

T-  ^     1       T7--  r  T^    1         .      Poland 

states,  rrom  1300  to  1306  the  Kmg  of  Bohemia 

became  king  of  the  Poles  also,  and  when  the  two  coun- 


552        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

tries  again  had  separate  rulers,  the  Duchy  of  Silesia  went 
with  Bohemia.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  native  line  of 
princes  came  to  an  end  in  Galicia,  that  region  was  annexed 
to  Poland.  King  Casimir  the  Great  (1333-1370)  collected 
and  published  the  laws,  favored  the  growth  of  cities,  yet 
was  known  as  "The  Peasants'  King"  because  of  his  care  for 
their  welfare,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  later  (1400) 
university  at  Cracow. 

From  1370  to  1382  Poland  was  ruled  by  Louis,  King  of 
Hungary,  but  upon  his  death  the  nobility  offered  the  crown 
Union  with  to  Jagello,  the  Grand  Duke  of  Lithuania,  upon 
Lithuania  ^j^g  condition  that  he  marry  Louis's  daughter, 
Hedwig,  and  that  the  Lithuanians  accept  Christianity.  The 
principality  of  Lithuania,  with  its  capital  at  Vilna,  had  ex- 
panded to  cover  much  of  western  Russia.  It  even  included 
Kiev  and  stretched  to  the  Black  Sea.  Thus  the  union  with 
Lithuania  in  1386  under  the  dynasty  of  the  Jagellons  greatly 
increased  the  extent  of  Poland.  It  acquired  more  territory 
and  access  to  the  Baltic  as  well  as  to  the  Black  Sea  by  its 
conquests  during  the  fifteenth  century  at  the  expense  of 
the  Teutonic  Knights,  who  finally  lost  all  their  other  pos- 
sessions and  continued  to  hold  East  Prussia  only  as  a  fief 
from  the  Polish  King. 

From  1 310  to  1437  Bohemia  was  ruled  by  the  House  of 
Luxemburg,  many  of  whom  were  Emperors  of  Germany  as 
.  well  as  Kings  of  Bohemia.   Charles  IV  furthered 

the  prosperity  of  the  land  and  founded  the  Uni- 
versity of  Prague  (1348),  where  the  students  formed  four 
nations  of  Bohemians  and  Poles,  Bavarians  and  Saxons.  He 
encouraged  the  Czech  language  and  the  native  merchants, 
although  he  continued,  like  Ottocar  II  and  other  previous 
princes,  to  call  in  German  colonists,  and  although  his  chan- 
cery at  Prague  did  much  to  fix  a  written  form  of  Middle 
German  which  marks  an  important  step  in  the  development 
toward  a  common  German  tongue.  Charles  IV,  indeed,  prob- 
ably hoped,  like  Ottocar,  to  make  Bohemia  the  center  from 
which  his  dynasty  should  rule  Germany  or  at  least  large 
portions  of  it.    Thus,  while  his  university  was  the  first  one 


EASTERN   EUROPE   IN   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    553 

started  in  the  Empire  north  of  the  Alps,  and  was  meant 
for  Germans  as  much  as  for  Poles  and  Bohemians,  he  lo- 
cated it  in  the  Bohemian  capital.  In  the  fifteenth  century 
Bohemia  became  a  prey  to  religious  discontent  and  the 
destructive  Hussite  Wars  of  which  we  shall  speak  in  the  next 
chapter  in  connection  with  church  history. 

A  branch  of  the  same  House  of  Anjou  which  the  popes 
had  called  in  to  rule  Naples  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
reigned  in  Hungary  in  the  fourteenth  from  1309  ^^^  ^ 
to  1382.  When  King  Louis  died  in  1382,  Sigis- 
mund,  who  had  married  his  older  daughter,  became  King 
of  Hungary,  although  the  Poles  refused  to  have  him  and, 
as  we  have  seen,  instead  took  Louis's  younger  daughter  and 
married  her  to  Jagello  of  Lithuania  and  chose  him  as  their 
king.  The  reign  of  Sigismund  in  Hungary  was  not  over- 
glorious,  since  it  took  him  some  time  to  establish  his  au- 
thority, and  then  in  1396  the  Ottoman  Turks  defeated  him 
at  Nicopolis  and  overran  a  good  deal  of  his  kingdom.  Sigis- 
mund, who  it  will  be  remembered,  became  emperor  in  1410, 
succeeded  his  brother  Wenzel  as  King  of  Bohemia  as  well, 
where  he  reigned  from  141 9  to  his  death  in  1437,  so  far  as 
the  Hussites,  indignant  at  his  betrayal  of  their  leader,  would 
let  him.  On  Sigismund's  death,  Bohemia  and  Hungary, 
like  the  imperial  office  which  he  had  held,  passed  for  a  few 
years  to  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  But  then,  through  exer- 
cise of  the  old  custom  of  election  by  the  nobility,  the  two 
lands  came  under  the  rule  of  native  kings  and  did  not  again 
come  into  the  possession  of  the  Austrian  dynasty  until  well 
into  the  sixteenth  century. 

From  Hungary  we  pass  on  in  our  survey  of  Eastern  lands 
to  the  Balkan  peninsula.    In  1261  the  Genoese,  who  were 
jealous  of  Venetian  preponderance  in  the  JEgean  The  Balkan 
and  Black  Seas,  helped  to  overthrow  the  Latin  and  Con- 
Empire,  which  the  Fourth  Crusade  had  set  up  stantinople 
in  1204,  and  to  restore  the  rule  of  a  Greek  dynasty  at 
Constantinople.    But  this  revived  Byzantine  Empire  was 
small  and  weak;  the  Frankish  principalities  in  central  and 
southern  Greece  remained  independent;  and  Venice  kept 


554        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

her  possessions  on  the  coasts  of  Greece  and  in  the  islands 
of  the  JEgean.  In  1291,  however,  the  Latins  lost  their  last 
foothold  on  the  coast  of  Syria  to  the  Moslems.  Sometime 
after  the  Mongols  had  receded  from  the  territory  which 
is  now  Roumania,  the  two  native  principalities  of  Wallachia 
and  Moldavia  were  founded.  They  "continued  to  exist  in 
one  form  or  another  until  their  union  under  a  single  ruler 
in  the  present  century."  Under  Stephen  VI  (1331-1355), 
Serbia  became  for  a  time  the  chief  power  in  the  Balkan 
peninsula.  Stephen  extended  his  sway  over  Macedonia, 
Thessaly,  Epirus,  Albania,  Bosnia,  and  part  of  Bulgaria; 
and  assumed  the  title,  Emperor  of  the  Romans. 

In  the  later  Middle  Ages  the  Ottoman  Turks,  so  named 
from  Osman,  one  of  their  early  leaders,  take  the  place  of  the 
j^.  J  j^  Seljuks  of  the  crusading  period,  and  have  re- 
Ottoman  mained  a  problem  of  world  diplomacy  to  this 
^^  ^  day.  Their  invasion  of  Europe  represents  the  last 

we  have  to  consider  of  those  successive  waves  of  mounted 
Asiatic  nomads  who,  ever  since  the  Huns  drove  the  West 
Goths  across  the  Danube,  had  so  frequently  appeared  in 
medieval  history.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Ottoman 
Turks  established  themselves  in  Asia  Minor  and  by  the 
first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  had  conquered  all  the 
Byzantine  possessions  in  Asia  except  Trebizond.  In  the 
course  of  time  they  altered  considerably  their  nomadic  mode 
of  life,  but  they  have  never  shown  much  capacity  for  civili- 
zation. They  were  great  fighters  and  fanatically  devoted  to 
Islam.  They  were  fortunate  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
fifteenth  century  in  having  sultans  of  great  ability.  They 
themselves  preferred  to  fight  on  horseback,  but  they  also 
made  much  use  of  the  Janizaries  —  Christian  children  who 
were  captured  and  trained  to  serve  as  infantry. 

Presently  a  civil  war  broke  out  in  Constantinople  and  the 
rival  parties  not  only  turned  for  aid  to  Serbia,  Bulgaria, 
They  enter  Venice,  and  Genoa,  but  also  employed  the  Otto- 
Europe  mans  as  mercenaries.  The  result  was  that  not 
only  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  and  Genoa  took  for  themselves  slices 
of  Byzantine  territory,  but  that  in  1 353-1 354  the  Turks 


556        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

seized  some  strongholds  at  GallipoH  on  the  European  shore 
of  the  Hellespont.  Under  Amurath  or  Murad  I  (1359-1389), 
they  began  to  extend  their  power  into  the  Balkan  peninsula 
and  to  emigrate  and  settle  there  in  considerable  numbers. 
They  took  Adrianople  in  136 1.  In  137 1  they  defeated  a 
Serbian  prince  at  the  head  of  a  coalition  of  Roumanians, 
Magyars,  and  Bosnians.  Another  ten  years  and  they  had 
taken  Sofia,  the  present  capital  of  Bulgaria.  Just  before  his 
death  Murad  I  defeated  the  alliance  of  the  Balkan  States 
at  the  bloody  battle  of  Kosovo  ("the  plain  of  the  black- 
birds"). 

Under  Murad's  son,  Bajazet  (1389-1403),  the  conquest  of 
Macedonia  and  Thessaly  was  completed;  the  independent 
Kingdom  and  Church  of  Bulgaria  were  blotted 
out;  and  many  Bulgarians  were  transplanted  to 
Asia  Minor.  Bajazet  also  forced  the  Princes  of  Serbia  and 
Wallachia  to  recognize  his  overlordship,  and  sent  punitive 
expeditions  into  Bosnia.  Bosnia  in  the  later  Middle  Ages 
was  a  land  weakened  by  incessant  local  warfare,  and  by 
religious  strife  between  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  Greek 
Christians,  and  the  heretical  Cathari.  It  consequently  of- 
fered slight  resistance  to  the  Turks.  Hungary  was  now 
endangered  and  at  Sigismund's  request  the  pope  preached 
a  crusade  in  which  French,  English,  Germans,  and  Poles  as 
well  as  Hungarians  participated,  but  they  were  crushed  at 
Nicopolis  in  1396.  Bajazet  next  turned  his  attention  to 
Constantinople,  which  already  had  been  forced  to  pay  trib- 
ute, and  it  would  probably  have  fallen  at  this  time  had  he 
not  been  called  away  from  its  siege  to  meet  a  new  conqueror 
in  Asia. 

Timur  (1336-1405),  or  Tamerlane,  —  which,  however, 
means  Timur  the  Lame  and  was  really  an  insulting  epithet 
^       ,  applied  to  him,  —  had  renewed  the  terrible  in- 

Tamerlane  .  titit  ttii  ii- 

vasions  of  the  Mongols.  He  had  made  himself 
master  of  central  Asia,  had  conquered  Persia,  the  Caucasus, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Armenia,  and  had  penetrated  south- 
ward to  Delhi  in  India.  The  Golden  Horde  also  owned  his 
sway  and  he  made  expeditions  to  the  Volga.    Indeed,  he 


EASTERN   EUROPE   IN   LATER   MIDDLE  AGES    557 

conducted  all  his  conquests  In  person  and  with  great  cruelty, 
leaving  a  trail  of  blood  and  ruins  behind  him.  He  built 
towers  of  the  skulls  of  those  whom  he  had  slain  or  embedded 
the  bodies  of  the  living  in  walls  with  stones  and  mortar.  His 
oldest  son,  however,  went  him  one  worse  when  he  began  to 
tear  down  all  the  famous  buildings  that  he  could  lay  hands 
on  in  order  "that  men  might  say,  '  Miran  Mirza  did  nothing 
himself,  but  he  commanded  the  destruction  of  the  world's 
noblest  works.' "  This  morbid  craving  for  ill-fame  his  father 
discouraged  by  deposing  him.  Timur  himself  maintained  a 
showy  court  at  Samarkand,  and,  when  he  sacked  other  cities, 
transferred  their  treasures,  artisans,  and  scholars  thither  to 
adorn  his  new  capital.  In  1400  he  defeated  the  Mameluke 
Sultan  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  burned  the  city  of  Damascus 
which  had  surrendered  without  resistance,  and  massacred 
many  of  its  inhabitants.  The  next  year  he  took  Bagdad  and 
is  said  to  have  reared  a  trophy  of  ninety  thousand  human 
heads.  In  1402  at  Angora  he  crushed  the  army  of  the  hith- 
erto victorious  Bajazet,  who  died  in  captivity  the  next  year. 
Timur  returned  to  Samarkand  and  prepared  a  great  expedi- 
tion to  conquer  China,  but  died  on  the  march.  His  vast 
empire  quickly  dissolved.  An  interesting  account  has  come 
down  to  us  of  thirty- two  years  of  travel  and  adventure  as  a 
slave  in  all  sorts  of  lands,  including  Siberia,  by  Hans  Schelt- 
berger,  a  German  boy  of  sixteen  who  was  captured  by  the 
Turks  at  Nicopolis.  They  spared  his  life  because  of  his 
youth;  then  he  was  captured  from  Bajazet  by  Timur,  and 
thereafter  was  tossed  to  and  fro  for  years  among  the  wan- 
dering Tartars. 

For  some  years  after  their  defeat  at  Angora,  the  Turks 
were  too  weak  to  renew  their  attacks  upon  Christendom, 
and  Bajazet's  sons  were  occupied  in  quarreling  j,  , 

over  his  dominions.   But  under  Murad  II  (142 1-  Turkish 
1451),  Constantinople  was  again  unsuccessfully 
besieged,  and  Saloniki  was  captured  from  Venice  only  after 
a  siege  of  seven  years.    In  1439  the  Turks  overran  Serbia, 
but  failed  to  take  Belgrade,  and  then  had  several  successive 
defeats  administered  to  them  by  the  Hungarian  general, 


558        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

John  Hunyadi,  so  that  they  agreed  in  1444  to  evacuate  Ser- 
bia and  Herzegovina  and  to  yield  Wallachia  to  Hungary. 
But  the  King  of  Poland,  who  also  claimed  the  throne  of 
Hungary,  broke  this  treaty  of  peace  in  the  hope  of  driving 
the  Turks  from  Europe  entirely.  Instead,  he  was  defeated 
and  killed  at  Varna  and  the  Turks  recovered  all  that  they 
had  surrendered. 

In  1448  even  Hunyadi  was  beaten,  and  Constantinople  at 
last  was  taken  in  1453  by  Mohammed  II  (1451-1481).  The 
Fall  of  Con-  Byzantine  emperor  had  agreed  in  1438  to  unite 
stantinople  ^j^|^  ^j^g  Western  Church,  but  he  received  little 
aid  from  the  Western  powers,  while  the  loyalty  of  the  clergy 
and  populace  of  Constantinople  was  lessened  by  this  sub- 
mission, as  they  regarded  it,  to  the  Papacy.  Mohammed  II 
left  the  Christians  their  own  language,  religion,  and  customs, 
and  they  speedily  restored  the  Greek  Church.  But  the 
Byzantine  Empire  was  forever  at  an  end,  and  since  1453 
Constantinople  has  been  the  capital  of  Turkey,  and  Jus- 
tinian's great  church  of  St.  Sophia  has  served  as  a  Moham- 
medan mosque. 

In  1456,  however,  the  Turks  again  failed  to  take  Belgrade, 
which  was  relieved  by  an  army  of  crusaders  under  John 
Further  Hunyadi  and  a  papal  legate.  Hunyadi  died  soon 

of  Moham-  ^.ftcr  his  victory,  but  his  son,  Matthias  Corvinus, 
med  II  was  elected  King  of  Hungary,  and  the  Bohemi- 

ans at  the  same  time  chose  a  native  ruler,  George  of  Podie- 
brad.  But  instead  of  uniting  against  the  Turks  these  two 
national  kings  became  embroiled  in  strife  with  each  other. 
Meanwhile  Trebizond  had  been  conquered  by  the  Turks, 
central  and  southern  Greece  had  been  occupied  by  them, 
and  the  Parthenon  at  Athens  was  converted  into  a  mosque. 
Wallachia,  Serbia,  and  Bosnia  were  also  all  in  the  hands  of 
the  Turks.  Albania  had  held  out  since  1443  under  its  able 
leader  Scanderbeg  and  then  under  his  son,  but  with  the  fall 
of  Scutari  in  1479  its  resistance  was  over.  Thus  the  Turks 
held  practically  the  entire  Balkan  Peninsula.  Venice,  to 
save  its  trading  privileges  in  the  East,  made  peace  with  them 
in  1479.   The  next  year  the  Moslems  made  a  vain  attempt 


EASTERN   EUROPE   IN   LATER  MIDDLE  AGES     559 

to  capture  Rhodes  from  the  Hospitalers,  and  also  landed  in 
southern  Italy  at  Otranto.  But  then  the  death  of  Moham- 
med II  caused  their  withdrawal  and  they  attempted  no 
further  conquests  in  Europe  during  the  rest  of  the  century. 


EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Map  Exercise. 

On  outline  maps  of  Europe  and  Asia  indicate  the  boundaries  of  the 
states,  the  location  of  other  places,  and  the  trade  routes  which  have 
been  mentioned  in  the  above  chapter. 

Chronological  Review. 

Arrange  in  chronological  order  the  events  for  which  specific  dates  are 
given  in  the  above  chapter. 

The  Mongols  in  the  Thirteenth  Century. 

Beazley,  Dawn  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  ll,  pp.  325-30,  William  of 
Rubruk's  account;  pp.  281-86,  288-93,  John  de  Piano  Carpini's 
account. 

Western  Embassies  to  the  Mongol  Court. 

Beazley,  Dawn  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  n,  pp.  275-317,  Carpini's  ac- 
count; pp.  320-75,  Rubruk's  account;  pp.  317-20,  Mission  of  Andrew. 

Bohemia:  Reigns  of  Ottocar  II  and  Charles  IV. 
Liitzow,  Bohemia:  An  Historical  Sketch  (edition  of  1909),  pp.  44-49, 

69-76. 
Leger,  A  History  of  Austria-Hungary  (New  York,  1889),  pp.  103-11, 
119-26,  161-64. 

The  Byzantine  Empire  and  the  Ottoman  Turks. 
Duruy,  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  492-503. 
Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  xxi,  pp.  494-514. 

Tamerlane  and  his  Court. 

Beazley,  Dawn  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  iii,  pp.  342-54. 

Turkish  Characteristics  and  Humor. 
Eliot,  Turkey  in  Europe,  pp.  87-97,  107-11. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  PAPACY  AND  ITS   OPPONENTS   IN   THE  FOURTEENTH 
AND   FIFTEENTH   CENTURIES 

From  1309  to  1376  the  popes  remained  at  Avignon,  a 
period  of  seventy  years  which  suggested  comparison  with 
The  Papacy  the  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Jewish  people, 
at  Avignon  fhis  long  abscncc  from  Rome  greatly  scandalized 
many  persons.  First,  the  Romans,  who  lost  the  presence  of 
the  splendid  papal  court  and  the  profitable  stream  of  pil- 
grims and  clergy  from  other  lands.  Second,  the  Italians  like 
Dante  and  Petrarch,  who  felt  aggrieved  that  Italy  had  thus 
been  abandoned  to  its  fate  and  that  Italian  families  had  been 
deprived  of  their  accustomed  first  pick  of  all  the  choice 
church  positions.  Third,  the  English,  who  contended  that 
the  popes  were  favoring  their  foes,  the  French.  Fourth,  the 
Germans,  who  resented  the  pope's  claim  to  temporal  supe- 
riority over  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor  and  his  refusal  to  con- 
firm as  emperor  whomsoever  they  elected,  his  disinclination 
to  recognize  any  longer  the  imperial  power  in  Italy,  and  his 
attempt  on  one  occasion  to  make  the  French  king  Holy 
Roman  Emperor.  Fifth,  all  Christians  who  believed  as  a 
matter  of  principle  that  Rome  was  the  true  capital  of 
Christendom. 

A  prominent  feature  of  the  Avignon  residence  was  a  large 
increase  in  papal  expenditure  and  revenue.  This  was  ac- 
Increased  complished  partly  by  bringing  into  the  pope's 
papal  hands  the  right  of  appointment  to  an  increasing 

number  of  church  offices,  and  then  demanding  of 
these  papal  appointees,  not  five  per  cent,  as  a  modern  em- 
ployment bureau  does  when  it  gets  one  a  position,  but  one 
half  of  the  first  year's  income  of  the  bishopric  or  other  pre- 
bend. This  payment  was  known  as  "annates."  Moreover, 
far-sighted  ofhce-seekers  in  the  Church  sometimes,  by  a 
liberal  expenditure,  received  assurances  at  the  papal  court 


THE   PAPACY  AND   ITS   OPPONENTS  561 

that  a  certain  position  should  be  theirs  upon  the  death  of 
the  present  incumbent.  Another  source  of  papal  revenue 
was  from  payments  for  dispensations,  and  from  the  contri- 
butions of  the  faithful  in  connection  with  indulgences,  par- 
dons, and  jubilees  or  anniversaries.  There  were  regular 
papal  collectors  scattered  over  western  Europe,  which  was 
systematically  divided  up  for  the  purpose  into  seven  regions ; 
namely,  the  British  Isles,  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms,  Po- 
land and  Hungary,  Germany  and  Bohemia,  France,  the 
Spanish  peninsula,  and  Italy.  At  the  papal  court  great  mag- 
nificence prevailed,  and  the  subordinate  officials  at  least 
were  very  corrupt  and  demanded  no  end  of  tips  and  fees. 
One  reason,  however,  why  the  popes  required  more  revenue 
at  Avignon  was  that  their  possessions  in  Italy  were  in  a  state 
of  rebellion  and  confusion  and  that  they  not  only  derived 
little  income  from  them  any  longer,  but  spent  a  good  deal  in 
endeavoring  to  subdue  them.  Indeed,  the  popes  remained  at 
Avignon  partly  because  Rome  and  its  vicinity  had  for  a  long 
time  been  gradually  growing  too  hot  for  them. 

Whatever  good  reasons   it  may  have   had  for  being  at 
Avignon,  the  Papacy  did  not  escape  criticism.  John  XXII, 
besides  his  struggle  with  the  German  emperor,  -^j^^ 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  had  another  with  the  Spiritual  Spiritual 
Franciscans,  as  those  of  the  Order  called  them- 
selves who  insisted  upon  absolute  fidelity  to  the  injunctions 
of  St.  Francis  and  standards  of  apostolic  poverty.  The  pope, 
on  the  contrary,  supported  the  inquisitor  of  Narbonne  in  his 
declaration  that  it  was  heresy  to  assert  that  neither  Christ 
nor  the  apostles  individually  or  collectively  possessed  any 
property.  There  were  other  movements  akin  to  the  Spiritual 
Franciscans,  such  as  those  of  the  Fraticelli  and  the  Beguins 
and  Beghards.  These,  too,  were  often  persecuted  by  the 
Church  as  heretics. 

Louis  of  Bavaria's  court  physician,  Marsiglio  of  Padua, 
who  had  been  rector  at  the  University  of  Paris,   Marsiglio  of 
and  who  sided  with  the  emperor  and  the  Spir-  ^^^  defensor 
itual  Franciscans  against  the  pope,  wrote  a  re-  P"*^" 
markable  work,  The  Defender  of  Peace,  which  was  translated 


562        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

from  the  Latin  into  both  French  and  Italian.  The  idea  in 
the  title  is  that  the  exorbitant  power  claimed  by  the  pope 
has  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  world,  to  recover  which  it  is 
essential  to  restore  the  State  to  its  proper  place  of  superi- 
ority in  all  worldly  concerns,  to  reduce  the  pope  to  his  and 
the  clergy  to  their  proper  places  in  the  Church  itself  as  well 
as  in  society,  and  to  recognize  the  fundamental  sovereignty 
of  the  entire  community  of  believers  in  the  Church  and  that 
of  the  people  in  the  State.  The  clergy  should  not  judge  or 
govern  the  people,  but  merely  preach  and  administer  the 
sacraments  to  them.  The  Church  itself  is  made  up  of  lay- 
men as  well  as  of  the  clergy.  Such  a  power  as  that  of  ex- 
communication should  be  exercised  only  by  the  entire 
Church.  Marsiglio  also  asserts  that  the  theory  of  papal 
primacy  is  not  supported  by  the  Bible. 

Of  the  feeling  against  the  Papacy  in  England  in  the  four- 
teenth century  we  have  already  noted  signs  in  the  Statutes 
p.    J. ,  of  Provisors  and  Prcemunire,  the  repudiation  of 

criticism  of  John's  tribute,  and  the  hostility  toward  the 
clergy  manifested  in  connection  with  the  Peas- 
ants' Revolt.  And  it  had  even  been  proposed  in  Parliament 
to  confiscate  the  property  of  the  clergy  for  political  needs. 
The  author  of  The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Ploughman,  although 
he  is  careful  to  protest  his  orthodoxy  and  is  evidently  deeply 
devout  and  devotes  the  greater  part  of  his  poem  to  religion, 
nevertheless  finds,  like  Dante  and  Chaucer,  much  to  criti- 
cize in  the  Church  of  his  time.  The  friars  are  "preaching  to 
the  people  for  profit  of  their  paunch."  Papal  legates  keep 
fools  and  jesters  and  encourage  flatterers  and  liars.  Parsons 
and  parish  priests,  archdeacons  and  deacons 

"Are  loping  to  London  by  leave  of  their  bishop 
To  sing  there  for  simony,  for  silver  is  sweet." 

The  pardoners  who  blind  the  people's  eyes  with  their  bulls 
and  briefs  are  really  "gluttons"  and  "profligates  who  prac- 
tice vice"  and  who  spend  "what  otherwise  the  poor  of  the 
parish  would  have."  At  the  Day  of  Judgment,  the  poet 
opines,  indulgences  and  pardons  and  "a  pocketful  of  pro- 
vincial's letters"  won't  be  worth  "one  pie  crust."  He  com- 


THE   PAPACY  AND    ITS   OPPONENTS  563 

plains  that  money  "bestows  bishoprics  on  men  who  are 

base,"  and  permits  priests  "to  have  concubines  all  their 

lives,"  and  that  "popes  and  patrons  refuse  poor  gentle 

blood  and  take  Simon's  son  to  keep  sanctuary."   The  sin  of 

Sloth  is  personified  as  a  clergyman  and  confesses:  — 

"  I  have  been  priest  and  parson  passing  thirty  winters; 
Yet  I  can  neither  tell  the  notes, 
Nor  sing,  nor  read  a  saint's  life. 
But  I  can  find  in  a  field  and  in  a  furlong  a  hare, 
And  hold  a  knight's  court,  and  account  with  the  reeve; 
But  I  cannot  construe  Cato,  nor  speak  clerically." 

Such  was  the  feeling  in  England  when  John  Wyclif  late 
in  life  began  his  work  as  a  popular  preacher  and  religious 
reformer.  Previously  he  had  been  a  professor  at  John 
Oxford  and  had  written  works  of  the  scholastic  ^^^^'^ 
type  in  Latin.  His  scholastic  theories  of  divine  and  civil 
lordship  had,  however,  an  important  bearing  upon  his  atti- 
tude to  the  problem  of  Church  and  State  and  led  him  to 
question  the  doctrine  of  papal  supremacy.  Wyclif  found  for 
a  time  a  powerful  patron  in  John  of  Gaunt,  fourth  son  of 
Edward  III,  and  supported  the  Parliaments  toward  the  close 
of  that  king's  reign  in  their  hostile  attitude  toward  the  pope's 
temporal  and  financial  claims.  Like  the  author  of  Piers  the 
Ploughman,  Wyclif  criticized  the  pilgrimages,  indulgences, 
and  worship  of  relics  of  his  time,  the  mendicant  orders,  and 
the  lives  of  other  clergy.  He  believed  that  it  would  be  bet- 
ter for  the  Church  to  lose  its  vast  lands  and  wealth  and  be 
reduced  to  apostolic  poverty.  He  also  believed  that  the  peo- 
ple lacked  religious  instruction.  He  preached  to  them  and 
wrote  tracts  for  them  in  their  own  tongue,  founded  an  or- 
ganization of  "poor  priests"  to  do  the  same,  and  had  the 
Bible  translated  into  English.  Thus  he  is  one  of  the  founders 
of  English  prose. 

Wyclif  was  a  forerunner  of  the  later  Protestants  in  making 
the  Bible  the  sole  standard  of  religious  belief  and  practice, 
and  in  rejecting  such  customs  and  doctrines  of  ^  forerunner 
the  medieval  Church   as  he  felt  could  not   be  of  Protes- 
justified  by  Scripture ;  for  instance,  auricular  con- 
fession, celibacy  of  the  clergy,  masses  for  the  dead,  and  the 


564        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

doctrine  of  purgatory.  He  not  only  denied  to  the  pope  and 
clergy  any  political  power  and  held  that  the  State  was  as 
directly  founded  and  authorized  by  God  as  was  the  Church. 
He  not  only  declared  that  the  clergy  were  entitled  to  their 
privileges  and  property  only  so  long  as  they  lived  and  taught 
in  a  way  to  deserve  them.  He  also  argued  that  their  spiritual 
power  depended  upon  their  personal  faith  and  conduct. 
Even  a  pope  who  did  not  live  a  Christlike  life  was  no  head 
of  the  Church,  but  an  antichrist.  Salvation,  Wyclif  taught, 
depends  not  upon  obedience  to  pope  or  priest,  but  upon 
divine  grace  and  predestination  and  upon  the  faith  of  the 
individual  believer.  Wyclif,  in  fine,  proclaimed  "the  uni- 
versal priesthood  of  believers"  and  denied  the  special  sac- 
ramental power  of  the  clergy.  Some  of  the  seven  sacraments, 
like  confirmation  and  extreme  unction,  he  rejected  entirely, 
and  he  even  dared  to  attack  the  theory  of  transubstantia- 
tion  in  the  mass.  He  denied  any  material  change  in  the 
bread  and  wine  or  any  priestly  miracle,  and  taught  that  in 
the  sacrament  one  does  not  actually  partake  of  the  body  of 
Christ,  but  sees  Him  through  faith  and  communes  with  Him 
in  spirit. 

The  pope  had  tried  to  call  Wyclif  to  account  in  1377  be- 
fore he  had  done  much  more  than  to  attack  the  political 
Persecution  power  and  worldly  possessions  of  the  clergy,  but 
°^  Jh'^^'^  ^^^  support  of  John  of  Gaunt  and  of  the  populace 
followers  saved  him.  After  this  he  went  on  to  more  and 
more  radical  utterances,  until  in  1381  his  denial  of  tran- 
substantiation  lost  him  the  favor  of  John  of  Gaunt  and  his 
position  at  Oxford.  The  Peasants'  Revolt,  for  which  many 
held  him  responsible,  further  injured  his  popularity.  But 
the  House  of  Commons  declined  to  cooperate  with  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  persecuting  him,  and  while  he 
retired  to  his  parish  in  Lutterworth,  he  continued  to  pro- 
duce pamphlets  until  his  death  in  1384.  His  followers, 
known  as   "Lollards,"  ^  continued   through   the  reign  of 

1  The  origin  of  the  word  "Lollards,"  a  term  of  reproach  applied  to  the  fol- 
lowers of  Wyclif  by  their  enemies,  has  been  disputed.  But  the  word  "loUer" 
often  occurs  in  The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Ploughman,  and  evidently  means  one 
who  lolls  about  and  reclines  at  his  ease;  in  other  words,  an  idler,  loafer,  vaga- 


THE   PAPACY  AND   ITS  OPPONENTS  565 

Richard  II,  when  they  seem  to  have  been  influential  even  at 
court;  but  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV  Parliament  passed 
the  statute  De  hceretico  comburendo,  which  provided  that 
they  should  be  burned  at  the  stake  when  turned  over  by  the 
church  courts  to  the  secular  authorities.  After  this  the  Lol- 
lards were  pretty  well  stamped  out  in  England,  but  some 
survived  to  help  kindle  the  later  reformation. 

The  great  schism  in  the  Papacy,  which  began  in  1378,  had 
probably  emboldened  Wyclif  to  increase  the  vigor  of  his 
attack  upon  the  Papacy  and  had  enabled  him  to  ^^.j  j^  ^^ 
escape  punishment  for  his  heretical  views.  Greg-  the  great 
ory  XI  had  at  last  returned  to  Rome  in  1377  and  ^^  '^"^ 
had  died  there  the  following  year.  The  Roman  populace 
now  raised  a  great  tumult  outside  the  Vatican  palace  and 
insisted  upon  a  Roman,  or  at  least  an  Italian,  as  the  next 
pope.  The  cardinals  thereupon  elected  the  Archbishop  of 
Bari,  a  Neapolitan,  who  became  Pope  Urban  VI.  He  soon 
turned  the  cardinals  against  him  by  his  scoldings  and  other 
measures  directed  against  their  worldly  extravagant  life 
and  their  corrupt  manipulation  of  ecclesiastical  offices. 
Moreover,  during  the  past  century  the  cardinals  had  ac- 
quired considerable  power  and  were  therefore  incensed  at 
what  they  regarded  as  an  unwarrantable  infringement  of 
their  privileges  and  a  cruel  tyranny.  They  expected  half  of 
the  papal  revenues  and  a  share  in  the  direction  of  papal 
policy.  Finally  the  Ultramontane  or  French  cardinals  left 
Rome  and  elected  one  of  their  own  number,  Robert  of 
Geneva,  as  Pope  Clement  VII  (i 378-1 394).  There  had  been 
schisms  in  the  Papacy  before,  but  the  anti-popes  had  usually 
owed  their  office  to  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor.  Now  the 
Church  was  divided  against  itself;  the  schism  was  due  to 

bond,  or  irregular  wandering  clerk  or  hermit.  This  last  is  the  sort  of  life  that 
the  poet  represents  himself  as  leading  when  he  was  "clothed  as  a  loller  ...  in 
these  long  clothes."  Again  he  speaks  of  "lunatic  lollers  and  wanderers,"  and  in 
a  third  passage  says:  — 

"  This  is  the  life  of  lollers  and  lewd  hermits; 

To  look  very  lowly  in  order  to  gain  alms  of  men, 
In  hope  to  sit  at  evening  by  the  hot  coals. 
With  outstretched  legs  lying  at  their  ease. 
Resting,  and  roasting  their  backs  by  the  fire. 
Drinking  dry  and  deep.". 


566        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

a  quarrel  between  the  cardinals  and  the  pope.  The  French 
cardinals  declared  that  the  election  of  Urban  had  been 
forced  upon  them  by  the  Roman  mob.  It  was  hard  to  learn 
the  true  facts  of  the  case  and  many  pious  people  were  in 
honest  doubt  who  was  the  rightful  pope.  The  cardinals, 
however,  had  not  raised  objections  to  Urban's  election  im- 
mediately, but  only  when  they  saw  how  he  acted  as  pope. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  since  has  regarded  Urban  as 
the  rightful  pope. 

Meanwhile  Urban  had  more  than  doubled  the  number  of 
cardinals  by  appointing  twenty-nine  Italians  in  order  to 
Continua-  Command  a  majority  of  the  college.  It  must  be 
tion  of  the  admitted  that  Urban  was  a  very  hard  person  to 
get  on  with.  He  moved  his  court  from  Rome  to 
Naples,  from  Naples  to  Nocera,  from  Nocera  to  Genoa,  from 
Genoa  to  Lucca,  from  Lucca  to  Perugia,  from  Perugia  back 
to  Rome,  where  he  died  in  1389  —  poisoned,  it  was  whis- 
pered, by  the  Romans.  No  matter  who  might  be  monarch 
at  Naples,  Urban  quarreled  with  him ;  and  the  pope's  own 
Italian  cardinals  were  soon  conspiring  against  him.  But  when 
he  died,  they  elected  another  pope  who  continued  the  strug- 
gle against  Clement  VII ;  and  when  Clement  died,  his  cardi- 
nals also  chose  a  successor.  Thus  the  schism  bade  fair  to 
become  interminable,  since  there  were  two  rival  colleges  of 
cardinals  ever  ready  to  continue  it.  Another  circumstance 
that  perpetuated  the  schism  was  that  the  different  rulers 
and  nations  of  Europe  had  taken  different  sides.  The  sup- 
port of  the  French  king  seemed  to  insure  the  pope  at  Avig- 
non from  overthrow;  he  was  also  recognized  by  Castile, 
Aragon,  Navarre,  Scotland,  Flanders,  and  a  few  Italian  and 
German  principalities.  But  most  of  Italy  and  Germany,  also 
Poland,  Hungary,  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms,  England, 
and  Portugal,  sided  with  the  line  of  popes  which  began  with 
Urban  VI. 

In  order  to  retain  the  support  of  these  states,  the  rival 
popes  had  to  make  many  concessions  and  abandon  to  a  large 
extent  the  previous  papal  custom  of  interference  in  national 
politics.    On  the  other  hand,  there  were  now  two  papal 


THE   PAPACY  AND   ITS   OPPONENTS  567 

courts  to  be  maintained  and  so  the  burden  of  papal  taxation 
was  felt  more  than  during  the  Avignon  period.    ,  .    . 

.    ,  °  or-  Injurious 

Also  m  many  localities  there  were  struggles  for  effect  upon 
church  positions  and  benefices  between  rival  ^  ^  ""^^ 
appointees  of  the  two  popes.  These  circumstances,  and 
the  unreadiness  of  the  rival  popes  and  cardinals  to  make 
sacrifices  in  order  to  restore  church  unity,  caused  great 
scandal  and  distress  throughout  Christendom  and  greatly 
damaged  the  prestige  of  the  Papacy.  The  religious  life  of 
the  people  also  suffered.  As  a  result,  many  writers,  especi- 
ally at  the  University  of  Paris,  suggested  methods  for  end- 
ing the  schism  and  demanded  accompanying  reforms  in  the 
Church. 

At  last  the  two  colleges  of  cardinals  came  to  an  under- 
standing and  in  1409  joined  in  summoning  a  general  council 
at  Pisa  and  ordered  their  respective  popes  to  The  Council 
appear  before  this  assembly.  When  they  failed  °^  ^'^^ 
to  appear,  they  were  both  deposed  as  notorious  schismatics 
and  heretics,  and  the  cardinals  combined  to  elect  a  new  pope, 
Alexander  V.  But  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  and  a  few  other 
states  of  Italy  and  Germany  persisted  in  supporting  the 
cause  of  Gregory  XII,  the  third  successor  of  Urban  VI, 
■"^^hile  the  Spanish  peninsula  and  Scotland  still  adhered  to 
Benedict  XIII  of  the  Avignon  line.  Alexander  V  died  the 
next  year  and  was  succeeded  by  a  warlike  cardinal  who  had 
been  helping  him  to  conquer  the  Papal  States  and  who  now 
took  the  title,  John  XXIII.  Thus  the  Council  of  Pisa,  in- 
stead of  ending  the  schism,  had  made  it  a  triple  one. 

The  Emperor  Sigismund  now  succeeded  in  assembling  at 
Constance,  a  German  city  where  no  one  of  the  three  popes 
would  have  much  influence,  a  larger  and  more  The  Council 

11  J.    J-'  '1     ^L  A.\-    ^       J.    ofConstance: 

generally  representative  council  than  that  at  healing  of 
Pisa.  It  was,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  impressive  the  schism 
gatherings  during  the  Middle  Ages  and  lasted  for  three 
years.  John  XXIII  came  in  person,  bringing  with  him  a 
throng  of  Italian  supporters.  But  their  numbers  were  ren- 
dered of  no  avail  by  the  decision  of  the  council  that  voting 
should  not  be  by  heads,  but  by  four  nations;  namely,  the 


568        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

French,  Italians,  English,  and  Germans.  This  recognition  of 
different  nationalities  by  a  Church  supposed  to  be  catholic 
was  indeed  significant  of  the  rise  of  new  social  groups  and 
forces.  The  council  also  received  the  envoys  of  Gregory  and 
Benedict  as  papal  legates,  and  it  became  evident  that  the 
plan  was  to  secure  the  resignation  of  all  three  popes.  John 
at  first  agreed  to  resign  if  both  the  others  should  do  the 
same,  but  then  he  fled  from  Constance  and  called  his  clergy 
to  him.  But  the  English,  French,  and  German  nations  stood 
firm;  the  cardinals  and  other  clergy  who  had  joined  John 
soon  deserted  him  again;  Frederick  of  Tyrol,  who  had 
given  him  protection,  was  defeated  by  Sigismund  with  the 
aid  of  the  Swiss;  and  John  himself  was  captured,  deposed, 
and  kept  a  prisoner  until  the  council  was  over  and  the 
schism  ended.  Gregory  resigned  voluntarily,  but  although 
Sigismund  went  to  Narbonne  and  Perpignan  to  interview 
Benedict,  he  could  not  persuade  him  to  abdicate.  Sigis- 
mund did,  however,  induce  Benedict's  Spanish  and  Scotch 
supporters  to  abandon  him  and  to  participate  in  the  Council 
of  Constance.  Martin  V,  of  the  Roman  family  of  Colonna, 
was  elected  pope  in  141 7  and  therewith  the  great  schism  was 
practically  ended. 

While  healing  the  schism,  the  council  also  considered  the 
problem  of  a  new  heresy.  The  writings  of  Wyclif  had  by  the 
^  ,    „  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  reached  Bohemia, 

John  Huss  11.         •  1  1-11 

and  his  views  had  been  adopted  and  widely 
spread  by  John  Huss,  rector  of  the  University  of  Prague, 
and  a  preacher  of  great  influence  among  the  people.  As  a  re- 
sult he  had  already  been  excommunicated  in  141 1.  Jerome 
of  Prague  had  further  disseminated  these  ideas  in  Austria, 
Hungary,  Poland,  and  even  in  Lithuania  and  Russia.  Huss 
also  had  opposed  a  papal  bull,  which  preached  a  crusade 
against  the  King  of  Naples  and  offered  indulgences  in  order 
to  raise  money  for  this  purpose.  He  had  none  the  less  be- 
come the  idol  of  the  Bohemian  people,  and  all  efforts  to 
check  the  spread  of  Wyclifism  in  that  country  had  thus  far 
been  unavailing.  Huss  willingly  appeared  before  the  coun- 
cil in  the  vain  hope  of  winning  over  to  his  views  some  or 


THE   PAPACY  AND   ITS   OPPONENTS  569 

all  of  the  clergy  there  assembled.  He  had  received  a  safe- 
conduct  from  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  but  the  council  paid 
no  attention  to  it.  Huss  and  later  Jerome  of  Prague  were 
condemned  to  be  burned  at  the  stake.  This  action  simply 
caused  Huss  to  be  regarded  as  a  holy  martyr  as  well  as  a 
national  hero  in  Bohemia,  and  the  whole  country  was  up 
in  arms.  Priests  were  driven  from  their  parishes  and  mon- 
asteries were  burned. 

Many  of  the  German  colonists  in  Bohemia,  however,  re- 
mained loyal  to  the  council  and  to  Roman  Catholicism,  and 
the  Bohemians  were  unable  to  agree  among  them-  The 
selves  as  to  their  religious  beliefs.  The  more  Utraquists 
moderate  and  conciliatory  party,  known  as  the  "Calixtins" 
or  "Utraquists,"  and  represented  especially  by  the  Bohe- 
mian nobility,  soon  adopted  a  platform  of  four  articles, 
demanding  (i)  free  preaching  of  God's  word,  (2)  the  com- 
munion in  both  kinds  for  the  laity,  (3)  surrender  of  worldly 
power  and  property  by  the  clergy  and  a  return  on  their  part 
to  the  life  led  by  Christ  and  the  apostles,  (4)  punishment  by 
the  magistrates  of  all  deadly  sins  and  public  disorders,  even 
if  committed  by  the  clergy.  The  stress  laid  upon  allowing 
the  laity  the  wine  as  well  as  the  holy  wafer  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  shows  that  the  Utraquists  were  far  from  regarding 
the  communion  with  Wyclif  as  a  purely  spiritual  affair. 
Their  name  comes  from  the  Latin  word,  utraque,  referring 
to  the  communion  "in  both  kinds,"  while  Calixtins  is  de- 
rived from  the  calix,  or  cup  containing  the  wine.  Earlier 
than  this  there  had  been  an  agitation  in  Bohemia  for  a  more 
frequent  or  even  daily  partaking  of  the  sacrament  by  the 
laity. 

Thus  two  different  currents  combined  to  form  the  Huss- 
ite movement.  The  demand  by  the  laymen  for  a  fuller 
participation  in  the  Eucharist,  overemphasized  The 
the  value  of  the  rite  upon  which  the  medieval  Tabontes 
Church  already  laid  the  most  stress.  The  other  more  pro- 
gressive movement,  following  along  the  trail  which  Wyclif 
had  blazed,  attacked  the  clergy  and  departed  more  or  less 
from  the  customs  and  doctrines  of  the  medieval  Church. 


570        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  Utraqulsts  had  gone  but  a  little  way  in  this  direction; 
the  more  radical  party  became  known  as  the  "Taborites," 
because  their  first  meeting  was  held  upon  a  hill  to  which  in 
characteristic  fashion  they  gave  the  Biblical  name,  Mount 
Tabor.  They  wished  to  do  away  with  much  of  the  formality 
and  ceremony  in  religious  worship,  and  their  priests  offi- 
ciated without  wearing  any  distinctive  ecclesiastical  vest- 
ments. They  also  addressed  one  another  as  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  represented  a  democratic  movement  among  the 
peasantry  and  lower  classes  in  contrast  to  the  Utraquist 
nobles.  While  the  Utraquists  and  Taborites  were  the  two 
chief  religious  parties  among  the  Hussites,  there  were  fur- 
ther divergences  of  belief,  and  from  time  to  time  factions 
appeared  within  the  two  main  parties. 

King  Wenzel,  who  had  done  little  toward  suppressing 
the  Hussites,  died  in  1419.  His  ob\^ous  successor  was  his 
The  Hussite  brother,  Sigismund,  but  the  Bohemians  were 
^^^^  suspicious  of  the  man  who  had  allowed  Huss  to 

be  burned  to  death,  and  it  became  evident  that  Sigismund 
would  have  to  employ  force  to  win  his  kingdom.  The  pope 
proclaimed  a  crusade  against  Bohemia  and  a  great  army 
gathered.  The  majority  of  the  crusaders  were  Germans,  just 
as  the  orthodox  party  in  Bohemia  itself  was  composed 
largely  of  the  German  settlers.  Thus  to  religious  strife  was 
added  the  racial  antipathy  of  Teuton  and  Czech.  The  cru- 
saders, of  course,  hoped  to  win  large  estates  for  themselves 
in  Bohemia.  But  the  method  which  the  Church  had  found 
effective  against  the  Albigensians  of  southern  France  was 
not  to  prove  successful  in  this  case.  For  although  the  Huss- 
ites were  divided  among  themselves,  they  usually  united  to 
repel  the  foreign  invaders,  and  in  John  Ziska,  the  leader  of 
the  Taborites,  they  possessed  a  great  military  genius.  He 
employed  the  new  firearms  which  had  followed  the  invention 
of  gunpowder,  and  also  made  use  of  ironclad  wagons,  which 
were  chained  together  in  four  lines  or  columns  and  which 
could  readily  be  formed  into  a  hollow  square.  Even  after 
his  death  from  the  plague  in  1424,  the  Hussites  continued 
their  series  of  victories.    In  1427  and  1431  the  crusading 


THE   PAPACY  AND   ITS  OPPONENTS  571 

armies  fled  without  risking  a  battle,  and  in  the  years  be- 
tween these  two  dates  the  Bohemians  invaded  Germany  and 
spread  terror  far  and  wide.  Both  the  crusaders  in  Bohe- 
mia and  the  Hussites  in  Germany  were  guilty  of  shocking 
atrocities. 

Since  the  Hussites  could  not  be  suppressed  by  force,  an- 
other general  council  was  called  at  Basel  in  1431  and  long 
negotiations  ensued.  While  these  were  in  proc-  Compromise 
ess,  the  Hussites  quarreled  among  themselves  arranged 
and  the  moderate  party  of  nobles  administered  Council  of 
a  crushing  defeat  to  the  Taborites.  Finally,  in 
1436  the  moderate  Hussites  accepted  their  four  articles  in 
a  new  form  suggested  by  the  council  which  somewhat 
weakened  their  force.  The  important  question,  however, 
was  whether  this  agreement  would  be  lived  up  to.  The  pope 
refused  to  confirm  a  Hussite  whom  the  Bohemians  elected 
Archbishop  of  Prague,  and  Sigismund  was  inclined  toward 
a  Roman  Catholic  reaction.  He  died  the  next  year,  how- 
ever; the  reign  of  his  Hapsburg  successor,  Albert  of  Austria, 
was  brief;  and  then  followed  the  long  minority  of  Albert's 
posthumous  son. 

During  this  minority  George  of  Podiebrad,  the  leader  of 
the  Utraquists,  gained  the  chief  power,  and  when  the  young 
king  died  in  1457,  he  was  chosen  king.   He  main-   j^  •  ^^   r 
tained  the  Hussite  archbishop,  and,  on  the  other  George  of 
hand,  captured  Mount  Tabor  where  the  radi-     °  '^  "^^ 
cals  had  been  holding  out  to  the  last.  They  survived,  never- 
theless, as  a  persecuted  sect  and  later  became  the  Bohemian 
Brotherhood  or  Moravians.  The  pope  now  refused  to  stand 
by  the  compromise  which  the  Council  of  Basel  had  made 
with  the  Hussites,  and  preached  another  crusade  against 
Bohemia  which  was  undertaken  by  Matthias  Corvinus  of 
Hungary.    Podiebrad  died  in  1471,  but  was  able  to  secure 
the  election  of  a  younger  son  of  the  King  of  Poland  as  his 
successor  rather  than  Matthias. 

This  king,  Ladislas  H,  was  himself  a  papal  sympathizer, 
but  found  it  necessary  to  tolerate  the  Utraquists,  who  con- 
tinued to  receive  the  communion  in  both  kinds.  The  Bohe- 


572        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

mian  nobles  also  kept  the  estates  which  they  had  taken  from 
Final  out-  the  church  lands  in  the  course  of  the  Hussite 
nSte  ^^^  wars.  The  German  colonists  and  the  monks  had 
movement  been  pretty  well  driven  out  of  the  country,  but 
the  native  peasantry,  who  for  the  most  part  had  belonged 
to  the  defeated  Taborite  party,  now  sank  into  serfdom.  On 
the  whole,  Bohemia  had  lost  greatly  in  economic  prosperity 
and  in  civilization  as  a  result  of  the  long  period  of  bitter 
strife  and  cruel  anarchy.  But  the  Church  and  the  Papacy 
had  failed  during  the  whole  course  of  the  fifteenth  century 
to  reduce  Bohemia  to  obedience.  Ecclesiastical  authority 
had  been  long  and  successfully  defied,  and  that  on  a  sacra- 
mental question. 

Many  who  attended  the  Council  of  Constance  had  come 
there  persuaded  of  the  need  of  a  thoroughgoing  reform  of 
Theconciliar  the  Church  "in  head  and  members."  Various 
and  church  committees  had  been  appointed  and  suggestions 
reform  made,  but  in  the  end  the  council  broke  up  with- 

out having  accomplished  much,  leaving  the  task  of  reform 
to  the  new  pope  and  a  future  council.  A  decree  had  been 
passed  that  another  council  should  assemble  at  the  end  of 
five  years,  a  second  after  seven  years,  and  others  every  ten 
years  thereafter.  This  revealed  a  strong  tendency  to  intro- 
duce something  like  parliamentary  and  representative  gov- 
ernment into  the  Church,  and  to  limit  the  pope's  absolute 
power.  Indeed,  at  the  time  of  John  XXIII's  flight  and  at- 
tempt to  break  up  the  council,  that  body  had  passed  the 
decree  Sacrosancta,  affirming  the  supremacy  of  the  "council 
over  all  Christians,  even  the  pope,  on  the  ground  that  it  rep- 
resented the  entire  Church  and  derived  its  power  and  in- 
spiration directly  from  Christ.  Martin  V,  therefore,  had  no 
desire  for  more  councils,  and  the  one  which  met  at  the  end  of 
five  years  at  Siena  accomplished  nothing  of  moment.  Neither 
did  the  pope  execute  the  reform  program  which  the  Council 
of  Constance  had  entrusted  to  him,  because  the  most  de- 
sired reforms  were  limitations  of  the  excessive  interference 
which  the  popes  had  come  to  exert  in  the  local  churches, 
especially  in  the  three  matters  of  appointments  to  ecclesias- 


THE   PAPACY  AND   ITS  OPPONENTS  573 

tical  benefices,  financial  exactions,  and  the  drawing  of  law- 
suits to  Rome.  Instead  of  reducing  his  own  powers  in  these 
respects,  Martin  V  gave  his  attention  to  the  recovery  of  the 
Papal  States  in  Italy. 

When,  however,  the  failure  of  the  crusades  against  the 
Hussites  necessitated  the  calling  of  the  Council  of  Basel, 
public  opinion  was  again  insisting  upon  a  real  Eugenius  IV 
reform  in  the  Church  in  order  to  prevent  the  Counca  of 
further  spread  of  heresy.  The  pope  was  now  Basel 
Eugenius  IV  (1431-1447).  Instead  of  attending  the  coun- 
cil, he  tried  first  to  postpone  it  for  eighteen  months  and  then 
to  have  it  meet  in  Italy  at  Bologna.  But  the  council  re- 
fused to  disband  and  reafiirmed  the  declaration  made  at 
Constance  of  its  superiority  even  to  the  pope.  It  then  pro- 
ceeded not  only  to  arrange  the  compromise  with  the  Utra- 
quists,  but  to  pass  various  decrees  for  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.  In  1433  the  pope  was  forced  to  make  his  peace  with 
the  council,  which  was  supported  by  most  of  the  European 
governments.  But  when  the  council  continued  to  pass  re- 
form measures  which  were  directed  especially  against  the 
Papacy,  Eugenius  IV  broke  with  it  again  and  held  a  rival 
assembly  in  1438-39,  first  at  Ferrara  and  then  at  Florence, 
which  arranged  a  fleeting  union  with  the  Eastern  Church. 
Meanwhile  the  Council  of  Basel  had  deposed  Eugenius; 
and  it  continued  its  sessions  until  1449.  By  that  time  Eu- 
rope had  grown  rather  weary  of  the  council  and  most  rulers 
had  decided  in  favor  of  Eugenius,  who  usually  in  return 
promised  to  observe  more  or  less  of  the  reform  decrees  of 
Basel,  or  to  share  his  powers  of  appointing  to  ecclesiastical 
benefices  with  the  local  secular  rulers.  Finally  the  Council  of 
Basel  recognized  Eugenius's  successor,  Nicholas  V,  as  pope 
and  disbanded,  and  the  conciliar  movement  was  over.  No 
further  attempt  by  the  Church  as  a  whole  to  reform  itself 
was  made  until  after  the  Protestant  revolt. 

Charles  VII,  however,  by  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of 
Bourges,  in  1438,  had  assured  to  the  French  churches  free- 
dom to  fill  their  own  church  positions  by  election,  and  had 
strictly  limited  the  papal  income  and  appeals  to  the  papal 


574        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

court  from  France.  This  was  the  foundation  of  the  later 
Church  liberties  claimed  by  the  Gallican  Church.    In 

reform  by  1482  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of 
in  France  Castilc  secured  from  the  pope  pretty  complete 
and  Spam  control  of  the  Church  and  even  of  the  inquisition 
in  Spain,  and  proceeded  to  execute  a  thorough  reformation 
of  the  Spanish  clergy.  They  saw  to  it  that  the  right  sort  of 
men  became  bishops,  that  the  clergy  in  general  were  well 
educated  and  of  high  moral  character,  and  that  purity  of 
doctrine  was  maintained. 

After  the  conciliar  movement  was  over,  the  popes  de- 
voted themselves  largely  to  Italian  affairs.  They  gave  some 
rp,  attention  to  the  Turkish  menace,  planning  cru- 

The  popes  ,  ,  '  r'  & 

of  the  sades  against  the  advancing  Moslems;  they  were 

still  looked  up  to  as  international  arbiters,  as 
appears  in  the  appeals  of  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish  sover- 
eigns to  the  pope  to  sanction  their  exclusive  title  to  all  new 
discoveries  in  America  and  the  East ;  but  they  neglected  the 
problem  of  reforming  the  Church  until  it  was  unpleasantly 
forced  upon  their  attention  once  more  by  the  Protestant 
revolt.  For  the  present  some  of  them  played  a  prominent 
part  in  Italian  politics,  while  others  were  patrons  of  the 
Renaissance.  One  or  two  were  learned  men  themselves, 
namely,  Nicholas  V,  who  founded  the  great  Vatican  Lib- 
rary, and  Pius  II,  who  before  his  election  was  the  humanist, 
^neas  Sylvius.  To  this  Italian  Renaissance,  which  thus 
captivated  the  Papacy,  we  now  turn. 


THE  PAPACY  AND   ITS  OPPONENTS  575 


EXERCISES  AND   READINGS 

The  Defensor  Pacis. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History,  vol.  i,  pp.  491-97. 

1.  Select  what  seem  to  you  the  ten  most  important  assertions  or  argu- 
ments in  these  extracts. 

2.  In  which  of  his  positions  and  statements  does  Marsiglio  seem  to  you 
to  be  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  in  which  is  he  representative  of  his 
times?   Give  your  reasons. 

Louis  the  Bavarian  and  the  Avignon  Popes. 

Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  v,  pp.  98-108. 

Wyclif. 

Hunt  and  Poole,  Political  History  of  England,  vol.  iv,  pp.  68-80  and 
102-113. 

The  Great  Schism. 

Thatcher  and  McNeal,  Source  Book  for  Medieval  History  selections  167 
and  168  (pp.  325-27)- 

The  Hussite  Wars  and  the  Council  of  Basel. 

Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  xii,  pp.  222-42. 

Comparison  of  Parallel  Passages. 

Use  the  works  by  Creighton  and  Pastor,  on  the  history  of  the  Pa- 
pacy from  its  residence  at  Avignon  to  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Take  passages  in  the  two  works  which  apply  to  the  same 
topic,  as  their  chapters  upon  the  popes  at  Avignon,  and  note  in  what 
points  they  agree  and  disagree,  and  what  facts  or  general  statements 
made  by  one  are  omitted  by  the  other.  What  do  you  infer  as  to  the 
sympathies,  reliability,  and  impartiality  of  the  two  m.en? 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

THE   ITALIAN    RENAISSANCE:   POLITICS   AND  HUMANISM 

In  the  later  Middle  Ages  the  Italian  cities  lost  for  the 

most  part  their  political  independence  and  communal  in- 

^        ,  stitutions.   But  as  a  result  of  the  economic  pros- 

General  _  ^  ^  _  ^^ 

character  of  perity  won  in  the  previous  period  and  continued 
e  perio  j^  ^j^-^^  they  produced  and  patronized  a  host  of 
writers,  scholars,  and  artists.  This  output  in  culture  is 
known  as  the  "Italian  Renaissance."  If  we  regard  Dante 
as  in  a  sense  closing  the  great  period  of  medieval  culture,  we 
may  begin  the  so-called  Renaissance  in  Italy  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fourteenth  century  with  Petrarch.  The  movement 
had  attained  its  height  in  Italy  and  had  begun  to  spread 
abroad  through  Europe  at  about  the  opening  of  the  six- 
teenth century  —  the  time  selected  for  the  close  of  this 
volume.  Before  considering  the  Renaissance  itself,  we  may 
briefly  notice  the  chief  political  changes  in  the  Italian  pen- 
insula during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 

The  constant  strife  between  cities  and  within  cities,  of 
which  we  have  had  to  speak  whenever  we  mentioned  the 
Political  Italian  communes,  had  three  outcomes.  First,  the 

decline:  rise  of  despots  or  princes,  absolute  rulers  who 

con  0  ten  deprived  the  citizens  of  the  political  rights  which 
they  had  failed  to  exercise  harmoniously.  Second,  the  ag- 
grandizement of  a  few  cities  at  the  expense  of  the  rest, 
which  were  for  the  most  part  reduced  to  subjection  and  de- 
prived of  their  self-government.  Third,  the  employment  of 
mercenary  troops  and  leaders,  called  condottieri,  who  were 
not  moved  by  patriotism,  but  solely  by  self-interest.  These 
three  things  ruined  public  spirit  and  were  accompanied  by 
a  great  deterioration  of  political  morality.  The  condottieri 
had  reduced  war  to  a  science  of  getting  as  much  pay  as  pos- 
sible out  of  their  employers,  as  much  plunder  as  possible 
out  of  the  country,  and  as  great  victories  as  possible  for 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  577 

the  sake  of  their  military  reputations  without  either  losing 
many  of  their  troops  or  terminating  a  war  which  was  prof- 
itable to  them.  They  would  change  sides  at  almost  any 
moment  if  offered  enough  pay. 

A  despotism  was  the  logical  outcome  of  the  single  magis- 
tracy of  the  podesta  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  had  replaced  the  earlier  boards  of  con-  The  rise  of 
suls  in  the  Italian  communes.  Although  at  first  despotisms 
the  tenure  of  office  was  annual,  a  podesta  who  showed  him- 
self capable  of  allaying  party  strife  and  of  giving  the  city 
order  and  prosperity  was  very  likely  to  be  elected  for  several 
successive  years  and  finally  for  life.  Gradually  the  office 
might  cease  to  be  elective  and  become  hereditary.  In  some 
towns  it  was  not  the  podesta  of  the  commune  who  thus 
transformed  himself  into  a  prince,  but  the  podesta  of  the 
merchants,  or  the  potestas  populi  ("captain  of  the  people"), 
chosen  by  the  popolo,  which  included  members  of  all  the  gilds 
and  constituted  a  more  democratic  suffrage  than  the  origi- 
nal commune.  In  other  places  the  vicars,  who  had  been 
entrusted  with  the  town  government  by  pope  or  emperor, 
altered  their  appointment  to  a  permanent  princedom.  Be- 
sides slipping  into  power  by  these  peaceful  and  gradual 
methods,  one  might  suddenly  force  one's  way  into  a  prince- 
dom as  the  leader  of  a  successful  revolution  or  as  a  com- 
mander of  the  city's  army.  It  was  especially  during  the 
troubled  times  of  the  warfare  of  Frederick  II  and  his  sons 
with  popes  and  communes  that  ambitious  and  unscrupulous 
individuals  were  able  to  establish  despotisms. 

Some  despots,  like  some  of  the  ancient  Roman  emperors, 
won  an  unenviable  reputation  as  cruel  and  vicious  monsters. 
But  taken  as  a  whole  their  crimes  and  violence  Rule  of  the 
were  little  if  any  worse  than  those  of  the  con-  despots 
tending  parties  which  had  preceded  them.  As  a  rule  they 
were  able,  alert,  resourceful  men:  indeed,  they  had  to  be  in 
order  to  retain  their  offices  which  often  had  no  legal  justi- 
fication. They  could  not  "muddle  along"  like  a  king,  on 
the  strength  of  his  royal  title.  They  also  were  more  likely 
than  were   republican  governments   to  encourage  artists 


578        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

and  writers,  partly  because  they  had  more  sympathy  with 
genius,  partly  from  a  concern  for  their  own  fame.  They 
usually  treated  the  lower  classes  in  the  city,  the  peasants 
outside  the  walls,  and  the  population  of  conquered  towns, 
better  than  had  the  preceding  form  of  government,  which 
had  almost  always  been  characterized  by  a  limited  citi- 
zenship. The  contemporary  Florentine  historian,  Guic- 
ciardini,  wrote  on  this  point:  "It  is  better  to  be  the  subject 
of  a  prince  than  of  a  republic,  for  a  republic  keeps  all  its 
subjects  under  and  gives  no  share  of  its  greatness  save  to  its 
own  citizens.  A  prince  is  common  to  all ;  one  man  is  as  much 
his  subject  as  another;  therefore  every  one  can  hope  to  be 
favored  or  employed."  Although  a  despot  who  ruled  well 
could,  therefore,  count  upon  at  least  the  passive  moral  sup- 
port of  the  masses,  he  had  to  be  constantly  on  his  guard 
against  those  whom  he  had  supplanted  in  office  or  deprived 
of  the  franchise,  against  influential  noble  families  and  am- 
bitious individuals.  The  air  was  full  of  conspiracies  and 
banishments,  of  assassinations  and  imprisonments  and  sus- 
picions of  poisoning.  Power  was  too  much  valued  for  its 
own  sake  and  all  other  considerations  were  subordinated  to 
political  and  personal  ones. 

This  state  of  affairs  was,  at  the  close  of  our  period,  set 
forth  in  clear,  concise,  convincing,  and  cold-blooded  style 
Machiavelli's  by  the  brilliant  Florentine  historian  and  pub- 
The  Pnnce  ijcist,  Niccolo  Machiavelli,  in  his  little  book. 
The  Prince,  which  aimed  to  teach  the  beginner  how  to  be  a 
despot.  That  cruelty,  violence,  and  deceit  must  occasion- 
ally be  employed,  he  shows  from  classical  history  and  recent 
Italian  politics.  He  expects  that  his  pupils  in  the  princely 
art  will  indulge  in  some  vices,  but  beseeches  them  at  least 
to  avoid  those  which  are  liable  to  cost  them  their  thrones. 
A  fair  sample  of  his  rules  in  diplomacy  is  the  precept  to 
ally  with  the  weaker  rather  than  the  stronger  of  two  war- 
ring states.  For,  should  the  stronger  state  win,  it  would 
then  try  to  crush  you  too,  even  if  you  had  allied  with  it. 
If  the  weaker  wins,  whether  it  is  grateful  for  your  aid  or 
not,  both  sides  will  still  need  and  value  your  alliance.  Mach- 


Italy  in  the 
Fifteenth  Century 


Miles 


0      2U    40     60  120 

Venetian  Possessions 
Duchy  of  Milan 
Papal  States 
Lucca  and  Siena 


LoDgitude  East  13  irom  f^; 


58o        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

iavelll  should  not  be  held  personally  responsible  for  the 
immoral  statecraft  depicted  in  his  book.  He  held  no  brief 
for  despotism  and  wrote  another  work  on  the  republic.  He 
did  not  invent  the  conduct  prescribed  for  despots  in  his 
volume,  but  simply  shrewdly  observed  and  set  down  what 
he  saw  going  on  all  about  him. 

In  northern  Italy,  Milan  had  absorbed  most  of  her  neigh- 
bor communes  and  so  had  become  one  of  the  leading  Ital- 
The  chief  ^^^  powers  of  the  time  of  the  Renaissance.  The 
despotisms  Visconti  family  were  the  first  dynasty  of  despots 
in  Milan.  One  who  became  archbishop  utilized 
that  office  to  establish  a  princedom  for  his  nephew.  In  1450 
Francesco  Sforza,  a  mercenary  general  who  had  married 
Bianca,  a  daughter  of  the  last  Visconti  duke,  became  des- 
pot. To  the  west  of  the  Milanese  possessions  princely  dy- 
nasties had  been  ruling  in  Montferrat  and  Piedmont  ever 
since  the  feudal  period.  To  the  east  Verona  a,nd  Padua  were 
the  centers  of  powerful  principalities,  ruled  by  the  Scaliger 
(de  la  Scala)  and  Carrara  families  respectively  until  the 
first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  Venice  conquered 
those  territories  and  brought  her  possessions  up  to  the  fron- 
tier of  Milan.  Other  smaller  despotisms  whose  courts  be- 
came centers  of  the  Renaissance  were  Mantua  under  the 
Gonzaga,  Ferrara  ruled  by  the  House  of  Este,  Urbino  under 
Federigo  di  Montefeltro,  and  Rimini  under  Gismondo  Mala- 
testa,  famed  for  his  moral  enormities,  his  military  skill, 
and  his  culture.  He  and  Federigo  were  deadly  enemies  and 
often  fought  against  each  other  upon  opposite  sides  as 
condottieri.  Such,  indeed,  was  the  military  repute  of  both 
that  if  one  were  hired  by  one  side  in  a  war,  the  other  was 
pretty  sure  to  be  engaged  by  the  other  side.  The  cities  of 
Ferrara,  Urbino,  and  Rimini  were  nominally  in  the  Papal 
States  where  other  petty  tyrants  abounded. 

Venice  was  one  city  in  the  north  which  remained  free  from 
despotic  rule.  The  power  of  the  doge  was  more  and  more 
limited  until  his  position  became  largely  a  ceremonial  one. 
He  was  paid  a  princely  salary  and  was  expected  to  maintain 
great  state  and  magnificence;  he  presided  over  all  the  various 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  581 

boards  and  councils  of  the  government ;  but  he  now  had  al- 
most no   opportunity   for  independent   action.   Further  de- 
His  six  councilors  were  supposed  to  be  in  constant  vdopment 

r     •  1  .     •  of  the 

attendance  upon  him  and  without  their  presence  Venetian 
he  was  not  allowed  to  open  a  letter  or  grant  an  constitution 
interview.  Then  there  was  the  College  of  Experts  or  Sages, 
a  sort  of  cabinet  of  sixteen  members,  subdivided  into  three 
sections;  namely,  a  board  of  five  for  maritime  matters,  an- 
other board  of  five  for  the  Venetian  possessions  on  the  main- 
land, and  the  six  grand  sages  for  city  or  home  affairs.  These 
sixteen  specialists,  together  with  the  doge  and  his  councilors 
and  the  three  heads  of  another  body  known  as  "The  Forty," 
constituted  the  "Full  College,"  or  chief  executive  council. 
The  Forty  by  the  time  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  were  chiefly 
important  as  the  supreme  court  of  Venice,  and  their  other 
functions  passed  to  the  Senate  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
members,  which  had  developed  out  of  the  earlier  custom  of 
the  doge  of  occasionally  inviting  groups  of  leading  citizens 
{pregadi — "the  invited")  to  give  him  their  advice.  The 
Senate  was  the  chief  legislative  body  and  also  considered 
questions  of  foreign  policy  and  received  the  ambassadors  of 
other  states. 

While  the  Venetians  had  thus  limited  the  power  of  their 
doge,  they  by  no  means  had  a  democratic  government.  In 
the  later  Middle  Ages  all  the  above-named  mag-  The  Great 
istracies  were  elected  by  the  Great  Council  and  Council 
filled  from  its  membership,  which  varied  from  one  thousand 
to  fifteen  hundred.  In  1297  membership  in  this  Great 
Council  had  been  limited  to  certain  families.  Venice  was 
thus  ruled  by  an  oligarchy  of  nobles  who  represented  but  a 
small  fraction  of  its  total  population.  They  were,  however, 
for  the  most  part  merchant  princes  and  not  a  feudal  or 
landed  nobility. 

In  Venice,  although  to  a  less  extent  than  in  most  Italian 
cities,  since  its  constitution  was  far  more  stable  than  the 
average,  first  one  magistracy  and  then  another  The  Council 
would  come  to  the  front  and  then  drop  to  a  sec-  ^^  ^^" 
ondary  place  in  the  constitution.   After  1310  the  Council 


582        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  Ten  gradually  became  perhaps  the  most  potent  single 
factor.  In  that  year  a  dangerous  conspiracy  led  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  this  new  board,  which  was  at  first  intended 
as  a  temporary  committee  of  public  safety,  but  was  after- 
ward retained  as  a  permanent  feature  of  the  constitution. 
Primarily  it  was  a  court  before  which  persons  dangerous  to 
the  State  or  guilty  of  gross  immorality  could  be  secretly 
tried  and,  if  it  seemed  best,  secretly  executed.  This  body 
probably  did  much  to  prevent  revolutions  and  to  maintain 
the  established  form  of  government,  in  which  there  was  lit- 
tle further  change  during  the  remainder  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  Ten  usually  met  together  with  the  doge  and  his  six 
councilors.  Gradually  they  came,  not  merely  to  act  as  a 
secret  court  of  treason  and  criminal  tribunal,  but,  in  the 
case  of  an  emergency  or  when  prompt  action  was  urgent, 
to  take  a  hand  in  foreign  affairs  and  in  the  government  of 
the  city.  But  they  never  ceased  to  be  a  committee  of  the 
nobility  and  responsible  to  them,  for,  like  most  of  the  Vene- 
tian magistracies,  they  were  elected  annually  by  the  Great 
Council  and  could  not  be  immediately  reelected. 

The  fear  instilled  in  the  public  mind  by  the  secret  and 
summary  methods  of  the  Council  of  Ten  was  perhaps  not 
Good  ov-  altogether  unsalutary.  At  any  rate,  it  must  be 
ernment  of  admitted  that  in  general  the  Venetian  aristoc- 
Vemce  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^j^^  ^  ^^^^  good  government  and 

one  which  was  satisfactory  enough  to  the  mass  of  the  popu- 
lation. Its  rule  was  strong  and  intelligent  and  left  the  com- 
mon people  undisturbed  and  prosperous.  The  nobles  worked 
hard  for  the  State  themselves,  setting  an  example  of  pat- 
riotism to  others.  The  State,  too,  was  so  closely  identified 
with  the  business  prosperity  of  the  city  that  every  one  had 
a  selfish  interest  in  it.  Taxes  were  light;  the  laws  were  good, 
the  courts  numerous,  and  the  settlement  of  cases  speedy. 
The  city  had  a  special  court  for  foreigners,  who  often  volun- 
tarily brought  their  lawsuits  to  the  Venetian  courts  to  set- 
tle, so  high  was  their  reputation.  The  Church  was  carefully 
regulated  by  the  State  at  Venice  and  did  not  exist  as  a  con- 
flicting and  trouble-making  jurisdiction.  Venice  was  one  of 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  583 

the  first  European  states  to  do  for  its  inhabitants  what  the 
modern  State  does,  but  what  the  Church  had  largely  at- 
tended to  in  the  Middle  Ages.  In  other  words,  Venice  had 
its  own  city  hospitals,  public  institutions,  and  pension  sys- 
tem. The  government  kept  careful  records  and  went  at  its 
problems  in  a  systematic  way,  so  that  the  city  on  the 
Adriatic  has  been  called  the  birthplace  of  statistics.  Its 
ambassadors  stood  first  among  the  diplomats  of  Europe  and 
in  early  modern  times  sent  home  reports  of  conditions  in 
other  countries  which  are  among  history's  most  valued 
sources.  Of  Venice's  early  public  debt  in  1171  we  have  al- 
ready spoken.  Its  currency  circulated  throughout  Europe, 
and  the  gold  ducat,  first  coined  in  1284,  in  the  later  Middle 
Ages  replaced  the  byzant  of  Constantinople  as  the  standard 
coin. 

Of  Venetian  ports,  islands,  and  other  possessions  and 
trading  interests  in  the  eastern  Mediterranean  and  the 
Black  Sea,  and  of  her  relations  there  with  the   ,r     ^. 

'  ^  ^  Venetian 

Turks  as  well  as  with  Genoa  and  Constantinople,  foreign 
we  have  already  treated  in  other  connections,  p^'^^^ 
Genoa  also  was  Venice's  greatest  rival  in  the  western  Medi- 
terranean and  in  trade  with  northern  Europe.  For  a  cen- 
tury after  1261,  when  the  .Genoese  overthrew  the  Latin  Em- 
pire at  Constantinople,  and  1284,  when  they  decisively 
defeated  the  Pisans,  their  chief  competitors  on  the  west  coast 
of  Italy,  Genoa  was  at  the  height  of  its  power.  Two  great 
naval  wars  from  1350  to  1355  and  from  1378  to  1381  ended 
the  struggle  of  Genoa  and  Venice  for  maritime  supremacy 
in  favor  of  the  latter.  Another  enmity  of  Venice  was  with 
Hungary  over  Dalmatia,  the  east  coast  of  the  Adriatic  Sea, 
which  was  desired  by  Venice  not  only  for  commercial  rea- 
sons, but  more  in  order  to  secure  a  food-supply  near  at  hand 
for  its  city  population.  Until  the  fifteenth  century  Venice's 
interest  in  the  Italian  mainland  was  limited  to  keeping  the 
routes  through  the  Alpine  passes  open  to  her  trade.  But  in 
the  first  half  of  that  century  the  acquisition  of  considerable 
territory  in  the  northeast  of  the  peninsula  brought  Venice 
into  close  and   frequently   hostile   relations  with   Milan, 


584        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Florence,  and  the  Papacy,  and  made  it  no  longer  possible 
for  her  to  hold  aloof  from  Italian  politics  as  she  had  usually 
hitherto  done. 

Florence  during  the  later  Middle  Ages  brought  most  of 
the  other  towns  of  Tuscany  under  her  sway  and  was  more 
Con  t't  powerful  than  Pisa,  Lucca,  or  Siena,  her  closest 

tional  history  rivals.  Her  internal  city  government,  after  pro- 
gressing for  a  while  in  the  direction  of  democracy, 
had  then  undergone  a  reaction  and  deteriorated  into  a  vir- 
tual despotism  under  the  cover  of  the  old  republican  forms. 
This  process  we  may  briefly  trace.  At  about  the  time  that 
Venice  was  restricting  both  voting  and  officeholding  to  its 
nobles,  Florence  took  an  opposite  course.  In  1282  the  su- 
preme magistracy  was  put  in  the  hands  of  six  priors  rep- 
resenting the  gilds  and  elected  anew  every  two  months,  and 
in  1293  the  members  of  thirty-seven  noble  houses  were  for- 
ever disqualified  from  these  offices.  There  were  twenty-one 
gilds  making  up  the  popolo  of  Florence.  Of  these  the  seven 
richer  gilds  of  notaries,  cloth-makers,  money-changers,  wool- 
weavers,  silk-weavers,  physicians,  and  furriers  were  known 
as  "the  fat  people."  The  "little  people"  consisted  of  the 
fourteen  gilds  of  linen-makers  and  mercers,  shoemakers, 
smiths,  salt-dealers,  butchers,  wine-merchants,  innkeepers, 
harness-makers,  leather-dressers,  armorers,  ironmongers, 
masons,  carpenters,  and  bakers.  Sometimes,  however,  the 
first-named  five  of  these  constituted  a  middle  group  with 
privileges  superior  to  the  other  nine.  These  lesser  gilds  now 
began  to  struggle  for  an  equal  share  in  the  government  with 
the  fat  gilds  and  ultimately  won.  Next  the  Ciompi,  who  did 
not  belong  to  gilds  at  all,  secured  political  rights  by  a  rev- 
olution in  1378,  only  to  lose  them  in  a  counter-revolution  of 
1382.  Under  the  forms  of  the  republic  there  then  ensued  a 
fifty-year  rule  by  a  political  ring  composed  of  a  few  burgher 
families.  This  oligarchy  was  very  successful  in  foreign 
policy,  but  finally  in  1435  was  overthrown  by  Cosimo  de* 
Medici,  a  wealthy  banker. 

Cosimo  was  a  political  "boss"  who  had  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  a  popular  reaction  against  the  oligarchy  in 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  585 

power.  He  was  careful,  however,  to  keep  all  real  power  in 
his  own  hands,  although  he  too  preserved  the  Rule  of  the 
old  republican  forms.  He  catered,  nevertheless,  ^^dici 
to  the  lower  classes  in  the  city  and  to  the  peasantry  outside 
the  walls,  while  he  taxed  the  wealthy  citizens  heavily  and 
was  harsh  toward  men  of  too  prominent  family  or  politi- 
cal promise.  Both  Cosimo  (1435-1464)  and  his  grandson, 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici  (1469-1492),  were  generous  patrons  of 
the  Renaissance  and  among  the  most  enlightened  of  the  des- 
pots. They  preserved  order,  were  peacefully  inclined,  good 
business  men,  and  astute  diplomats.  In  the  field  of  foreign 
affairs  they  were  aided  by  their  extensive  banking  connec- 
tions and  loans  to  other  European  governments. 

The  republican  government  of  Florence  had  been  crip- 
pled by  the  eagerness  of  all  its  citizens  to  hold  office  and  by 
their  general  reluctance  to  allow  any  one  person  Defects 
to  hold  office  for  any  length  of  time.  They  there-  Florentine 
fore  multiplied  magistracies  until  they  conflicted  constitution 
with  one  another,  shortened  the  term  of  office  in  most  cases 
to  two  months,  and  elected  their  officials  by  lot.  Thus  au- 
thority was  too  divided,  the  time  in  office  was  too  short  for 
any  one  to  accomplish  much  or  acquire  experience,  and 
officials  were  not  selected  with  a  view  to  their  fitness.  The 
clever  and  conceited  Florentines,  however,  believed  that 
they  were  all  capable  of  holding  any  office.  But  really 
some  political  ring  or  boss  was  needed  behind  the  scenes  to 
run  things,  especially  the  intricacies  of  foreign  affairs.  The 
method  of  election  by  lot,  too,  lent  itself  to  such  external 
control.  A  "scrutiny"  was  first  held  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
termining who  were  "good  citizens";  that  is,  acceptable  to 
party  or  person  in  power.  The  names  of  these  citizens  were 
then  placed  in  bags  and  were  drawn  out  from  time  to 
time  as  there  were  offices  to  fill  until  the  bags  were  empty, 
when  a  new  scrutiny  would  be  held.  Whoever  had  hold  of 
the  bags  evidently  controlled  the  situation.  To  have  any 
real  change  a  revolution  was  necessary,  and  when  a  revolu- 
tion occurred  the  old  bags  were  always  destroyed  whether 
they  were  emptied  yet  or  not. 


586        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  history  of  the  Papacy  during  this  period  has  been 
considered  in  the  previous  chapter,  so  we  pass  on  south  to 
The  King-  ^^^  Kingdom  of  Naples.  It  deteriorated  under 
dom  of  the  rule  of  the  House  of  Anjou,  which  itself  de- 

tenorated  too  and  had  a  family  history  full  of 
violence.  Especially  notorious  were  two  queens,  both  named 
Joanna,  of  whom  the  former  died  in  1382  and  Joanna  II  in 
1435.  The  throne  then  passed  to  Alfonso,  King  of  Aragon 
and  already  ruler  of  Sicily,  although  Ren^  of  Provence 
claimed  both  Naples  and  Sicily.  When  Alfonso  died,  John  II 
succeeded  him  in  Aragon,  but  Naples  went  to  his  illegitimate 
son,  Ferrante  I  (1458-1494). 

We  have  seen  that  France,  not  Italy,  took  the  lead  in 
the  great  outpouring  of  medieval  vernacular  literature  in  the 
Transition  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  and  in  the  inven- 
from  medi-      ^lon  and  development  of  Gothic  architecture. 

eval  to  Ren-    ^    ,  .  ,     t>, 

aissance  Only  With  Dante  at  the  begmnmg  of  the  four- 
culture  teenth  century  did  Italian  literature  get  well 
started,  while  Italian  buildings  continued  to  a  large  extent 
to  employ  the  Romanesque  style.  Italy's  greatest  medieval 
university  at  Bologna  had  been  connected  especially  with 
the  revival  of  Roman  law,  Dante  already  displays  something 
of  that  closer  personal  interest  in  the  Roman  past  which  is 
one  of  the  chief  features  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  and  even 
in  his  Divine  Comedy  there  are  many  allusions  to  ancient 
history  and  pagan  mythology.  This  shows  us  that  in  Italy 
the  transition  from  the  previous  culture  to  the  Renaissance 
was  not  so  abrupt  as  one  might  think.  The  Italian  Renais- 
sance was  in  a  sense  simply  the  last  stage  in  medieval 
civilization. 

The  word  "Renaissance,"  signifying  re-blrth,  was  orig- 
inally applied  to  this  movement  and  period  by  men  who  in- 
The  false  correctly  regarded  the  preceding  medieval  period 
of"thT^*°"  as  a  dark  age  when  there  was  no  civilization. 
Renaissance  They  believed  that  with  the  revival  of  the  clas- 
sics civilization  again  began  to  appear  in  Italy  for  the  first 
time  since  the  passing  of  ancient  culture.  They  disregarded 
or  were  unaware  of  the  fact  that  many  features  of  modern 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  587 

civilization,  such  as  the  modern  languages  and  the  European 
universities  and  the  study  of  natural  science,  had  already 
started  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  that 
many  features  of  classical  culture,  such  as  Aristotle  and 
other  Greek  learning,  Roman  law,  and  city  life  had  also  al- 
ready been  revived  at  that  time. 

We  cannot,  then,  regard  the  Italian  Renaissance  as  of 
such  vast  importance  as  men  used  to  regard  it.  Under  that 
name,  however,  we  may  include  the  movement  True  char- 
known  as  "Humanism,"  some  further  progress  itaUan^ '^'^^ 
in  Italian  literature,  and  a  period  of  great  genius  Renaissance 
and  output  in  the  fine  arts,  of  which  painting  and  sculpture 
now  develop  independently  of  architecture.  These  are  the 
chief  peculiar  features  of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  It  was 
also,  however,  a  time  when  certain  currents  of  medieval 
civilization  continued  their  course  of  development.  The 
invention  of  printing,  for  instance,  was  now  added  to  the 
earlier  medieval  inventions,  such  as  clocks,  chimney  flues, 
stained  glass,  plumbing,  gunpowder,  spectacles,  the  rudder, 
and  the  mariner's  compass.  The  medieval  geographical  ex- 
ploration, discovery,  and  map-making  now  terminated  in 
the  discovery  of  America  and  of  a  sea  route  to  India.  These 
innovations,  however,  were  wrought  out  by  other  lands 
than  Italy  and  so  are  connected  only  chronologically  with 
the  Italian  Renaissance  interpreted  in  any  strict  sense.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  most  lands  of  Europe  in  the  later  Middle 
Ages  many  characteristic  departments  of  medieval  culture 
were  stagnant  or  waning.  This  brought  Italy  into  a  com- 
manding position  and  gave  the  lead  to  her  more  recently 
developed  and  vigorous  culture.  It  may  be  added  that  her 
superior  city  life  and  economic  prosperity  gave  an  urbanity 
and  refinement  of  manners  to  her  culture  which  was  very 
attractive  alike  to  the  royal  courts  and  the  rising  bour- 
geoisie of  other  lands.  Italy,  then,  was  soon  to  become  for  a 
time  the  schoolmistress  of  Europe. 

As  was  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  the  Italian 
Renaissance  may  be  regarded  as  opened  by  Petrarch  (1304- 
1374).  Like  Dante  he  was  a  citizen  of  Florence,  the  intellec- 


588        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

tual  center  of  Italy  and  home  of  many  of  the  geniuses  of  the 
Renaissance.  Petrarch  entered  the  clergy,  whereas  Dante 
had  been  a  layman,  but  Dante  was  perhaps  the 
more  truly  religious  of  the  two.  Petrarch  sinned 
against  the  rule  of  sacerdotal  celibacy  and  was  also  guilty 
of  holding  a  plurality;  that  is,  more  than  one  ecclesiastical 
position  at  the  same  time.  In  his  younger  days  he  had  writ- 
ten love  poetry  in  Italian,  inspired  by  a  mysterious  Laura 
as  Dante  had  been  by  Beatrice.  But  while  the  masterpiece 
of  Dante's  maturity,  although  dealing  with  a  solemn  reli- 
gious theme,  had  still  employed  the  Italian  tongue,  Petrarch 
in  later  life  became  so  enamoured  of  classical  antiquity  that 
he  disdained  to  write  in  any  other  language  than  Latin. 
Vergil  had  guided  Dante  through  the  Inferno:  Petrarch 
wrote  letters  to  Cicero  and  other  dead  ancient  authors  whom 
he  passionately  admired  and  with  whom  he  longed  for  per- 
sonal communion.  When  he  wrote  letters  to  his  living 
friends  he  still  tried  to  express  himself  as  if  he  were  writing 
to  Cicero  or  as  if  Cicero  were  writing  to  him.  It  was  an 
event  in  his  life  when  a  rare  or  previously  unknown  work  by 
Cicero  or  some  other  classical  author  came  to  his  notice. 
With  eager  haste  and  yet  with  painstaking  accuracy  he 
would  make  a  copy  of  the  precious  manuscript  for  his  own 
library.  Besides  many  letters,  Petrarch  composed  a  number 
of  other  works  in  Latin  prose  and  verse.  But  as  they  dealt 
chiefly  with  classical  subjects,  —  as,  for  instance,  his  epic 
Africa  on  Scipio  Africanus,  concerning  whom  he  knew  noth- 
ing except  what  he  could  read  in  classical  literature  itself,  — 
they  have  not  interested  posterity  nearly  so  much  as  the 
early  love  poems  in  which  he  expressed  his  own  feelings  in 
his  own  language  in  a  comparatively  new  verse-form,  the 
sonnet.  Among  his  contemporaries,  however,  he  aroused 
great  enthusiasm  for  classical  studies.  His  letters  were  passed 
around  and  read  before  admiring  circles.  He  had  made  a 
wide  acquaintance  by  his  travels  about  Italy  and  in  other 
European  lands.  King  Robert  of  Naples  crowned  him  poet 
laureate  at  Rome  in  1341. 

Petrarch  was  one  of  the  first  humanists  and  his  activities 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  589 

and  interests  are  characteristic  of  the  rest.  Humanism 
was  the  study  of  classical  literature  not  merely  to  derive 
scientific  or  theological  information  from  it,  but  „ 

.,(••!•  •  Humanism 

primarily  for  its  literary  and  human  interest. 
The  humanists  were  impressed  not  only  by  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  ancients,  but  by  the  elegance  of  their  Latin 
style.  They  developed  a  liking  for  Latin  poetry,  orations, 
letters,  and  other  works  whose  interest  was  personal,  emo- 
tional, and  rhetorical  rather  than  objective,  logical,  and 
scholastic.  They  took  an  interest  in  the  personalities  of  the 
ancients  and  in  their  manner  of  life  and  their  attitude  to  the 
world.  The  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  of  course,  had 
seen  a  great  revival  of  Roman  law  and  Greek  science;  and 
the  interest  in  Latin  literature  and  in  the  stories  of  classical 
mythology  had  never  entirely  died  out  at  any  time  during 
the  Middle  Ages.  But  by  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies the  Digest  of  Justinian  and  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle 
and  Galen  and  Ptolemy  had  been  warmed  over  and  made 
hash  of  so  often  that  there  was  little  more  to  be  got  out  of 
them.  It  was  time  to  seek  new  authors,  new  works,  and 
new  points  of  view. 

Humanism,  therefore,  was  characterized  by  a  search  for 
classical  manuscripts  and  by  a  great  enlargement  of  the 
amount  of  Latin  literature  which  was  generally  ^^jj  ^j^^ 
known.  The  humanist  Poggio,  who  was  em-  of  Latin  ; 
ployed  as  one  of  the  papal  secretaries  and  at-  '  ^""^^^"^^ 
tended  the  Council  of  Constance,  brought  to  light  a  number 
of  precious  finds  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Gall.  The  classical 
manuscripts  discovered  by  the  Italian  humanists  did  not, 
however,  date  back  to  classical  times.  They  were  simply 
medieval  copies  of  those  works.  Therefore  all  the  Latin 
literature  known  to  the  humanists  had  been  known  some- 
where and  at  some  time  during  the  Middle  Ages  since 
Charlemagne's  time.  The  humanists,  however,  brought  it 
all  together  into  public  circulation;  multiplied  and  edited 
and  corrected  the  medieval  copies,  which  had  sometimes 
been  carelessly  or  ignorantly  made,  and  then  subjected  this 
very  considerable  body  of  literature  to  an  intensive  and 


590        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

sympathetic  study.  As  a  result  they  in  the  end  gained  a 
much  better  comprehension  of  the  Latin  language  and  of 
ancient  civilization. 

New  grammars,  dictionaries,  and  other  linguistic  treatises 
were  issued,  and  the  foundations  were  thus  laid  for  the  sci- 
Phil  lo  ences  of  philology  and  literary  criticism.  Learned 

and  literary  societies  Were  Organized  and  literary  controversies 
cri  icism  were  frequent  and  led  sometimes  to  abusive  per- 
sonalities. Scholars  who  began  a  learned  argument  over 
some  detail  of  style  or  fine  point  of  syntax  would  end  by  in- 
sulting each  other's  parents.  Despots,  republics,  and  popes 
alike  employed  humanists  as  their  secretaries  and  orators. 
Gian  Galeazzo,  the  despot  at  Milan,  said  that  he  feared  a 
dispatch  of  the  humanist  secretary  of  the  Florentine  Re- 
public more  than  a  regiment  of  its  citizen  soldiers.  The  hu- 
manists prided  themselves  upon  knowing  the  essentials  of 
classical  Latin  style,  and  were  careful  not  to  commit  any 
medieval  barbarisms.  Sometimes  they  seem  singularly  con- 
tent with  a  scanty  body  of  fact  or  thought,  so  long  as  they 
have  beauties  of  diction  in  which  to  revel.  They  were  in 
fact  a  little  prone  to  follow  the  debased  flowery  rhetoric 
of  the  late  Roman  Empire  rather  than  the  chaste  severity 
of  earlier  classical  models.  The  later  humanists,  of  whom 
Politian  was  probably  the  most  proficient,  improved  con- 
siderably in  correctness  of  diction  over  Petrarch,  but  their 
Latin  works  are  as  little  read  to-day  as  his. 

It  is  clear  that  any  one  wishing  to  comprehend  classical 
civilization  must  read  not  only  the  Latin  authors,  but  the 
Revival  of  Greek  originals  to  which  they  owed  so  much. 
Greek  Petrarch  owned  a  copy  of  Homer's  poems  in  the 

original  and  longed  to  read  Greek,  but  could  not  procure 
a  capable  teacher.  For  a  while  it  was  almost  necessary  to  go 
to  Constantinople  to  learn  Greek  or  to  procure  copies  of 
Greek  texts.  Aquinas  had  probably  used  a  Greek  text  in 
his  version  of  Aristotle;  Roger  Bacon  had  attempted  a  Greek 
grammar;  and  Peter  of  Abano,  a  scholastic  medical  author- 
ity at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  had  visited  Con- 
stantinople.  He  speaks  of  Greek  works  which  he  had  seen 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  591 

there  and  some  of  which  he  had  translated.  Toward  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century  noted  Greek  professors  came  to 
Italy  to  lecture.  Chrysoloras  at  Florence  is  one  of  the  best- 
known  examples.  Works  of  Greek  literature,  too,  were  now 
carried  to  the  West.  In  1423  one  man  brought  two  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  volumes  to  Venice.  The  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople thirty  years  later,  to  which  the  spread  of  Greek  learn- 
ing in  the  West  and  even  the  Italian  Renaissance  were  once 
ignorantly  attributed,  really  had  no  such  influence.  The 
transfer  of  classical  culture  from  its  Byzantine  storehouse 
had  begun  long  before  1453,  while  the  Turkish  conquest  did 
not  blot  out  the  Greek  learning  and  Church  or  cause  any 
great  exodus  of  scholars  and  removal  of  treasures  of  art  and 
learning.  Previous  church  councils,  however,  like  that  of 
Ferrara- Florence  in  1438-39,  where  the  question  of  the  union 
of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches  was  considered,  had 
had  some  effect  in  increasing  learned  communication  be- 
tween Italy  and  Constantinople.  The  Italian  humanists  be- 
fore 1500  seldom  reached  the  same  point  of  proficiency  in 
the  Greek  as  in  the  Latin  language,  and  were  apt  to  content 
themselves  with  translating  some  Greek  work  into  Latin. 
But  in  the  course  of  time  the  study  of  Greek  was  to  receive 
equal  attention. 

The  humanists  not  only  read  widely  in  both  Latin  and 
Greek  literature,  but  also  examined  ancient  ruins,  works  of 
art,  coins,  and  other  such  remains.  Besides  Latin  Advance  in 
grammars  and  Greek  dictionaries,  they  composed  knowledge 
works  on  classical  history,  antiquities,  geograph3^  and  attitude 
and  mythology.  Thus  they  came  to  understand  the  sur- 
roundings and  daily  life  of  the  ancients,  the  history  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  the  classical  attitude  and  viewpoint  as  medi- 
eval men  had  not  done.  They  no  longer  thought  of  Caesar's 
and  Alexander's  soldiers  as  knights  nor  of  Nimrod  as  the 
founder  of  chivalry.  In  short,  historical  knowledge  and 
sympathy  with  the  past  made  marked  progress.  Unfortu- 
nately at  the  same  time  they  lost  sympathy  with  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  past  medieval  period  which  was  now  vanishing 
behind  them. 


592        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Italy  at  this  time  produced  noted  educators  who  empha- 
sized physical  exercise  and  training  in  manners  and  morals 
The  classics  as  well  as  intellectual  schooling.  The  ancient 
m  education  Qi-ggi^g  ^^d  laid  as  great  stress  upon  the  first  two 
as  upon  the  last.  But  the  main  enduring  educational  effect 
of  the  humanistic  movement  was  to  make  Latin  and  Greek 
the  staple  subjects  in  schools  for  several  centuries.  These 
two  languages  and  literatures  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
basis  of  a  liberal  education  and  as  essential  to  a  cultured 
existence.  Hitherto  in  medieval  schools  every  one  had  been 
supposed  to  read  and  write  and  speak  Latin  easily;  but 
teachers  and  students  had  not  minded  much  whether  they 
wrote  like  the  ancients,  so  long  as  they  understood  one  an- 
other. The  other  fundamental  medieval  subject  had  been 
logic.  It  was  now  supplanted  by  Greek,  and  much  time  was 
devoted  to  reading  the  two  classical  literatures  and  to  the 
acquisition  of  a  correct  literary  style  in  the  ancient  lan- 
guages. During  the  Renaissance,  Latin  and  Greek  were  not 
thought  of  as  "dead  languages";  the  old-fashioned  and  ob- 
solete subjects  then  were  those  of  scholasticism,  medieval 
theology,  Aristotelean  science  and  metaphysics.  The  fields 
which  then  seemed  "up-to-date"  and  full  of  present  human 
interest  were  not  economics  and  sociology,  domestic  and 
political  science,  chemistry  and  engineering,  psychology 
and  "education."  The  "Humanities"  then  were  Latin  and 
Greek;  these  were  the  subjects  that  aroused  youthful  en- 
thusiasm and  that  seemed  to  open  up  new  vistas  of  life. 

The  views  of  life  found  in  classical  literature  so  attracted 
some  of  the  humanists  that  they  abandoned  or  slighted 
The  pagan  many  Christian  ideals  and  became  almost  pagan 
Chrisdan  ^^  irreligious  in  their  conduct.  Especially  they 
Renaissance  had  scant  sympathy  for  monasticism.  In  Italy, 
however,  they  seldom  attacked  the  Church  or  the  Papacy, 
since  they  were  often  enabled  to  devote  themselves  to  hu- 
manistic pursuits  by  holding  ecclesiastical  benefices  which 
paid  well  and  required  little  religious  work,  and  since  the 
popes  themselves  became  such  patrons  of  the  Renaissance. 
Pope  Nicholas  V  even  gave  a  position  at  his  court  to  the 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  593 

humanist  Lorenzo  Valla,  who  earlier,  when  under  the  pa- 
tronage of  King  Alfonso  of  Naples,  had  written  a  treatise 
exposing  the  Donation  of  Constantine  as  a  forgery,  and  who 
also,  by  use  of  Greek  texts  of  the  Bible,  pointed  out  errors 
in  the  Vulgate,  or  Latin  version.  Many  humanists,  more- 
over, remained  sincerely  devout;  and  there  was  a  Christian 
as  well  as  a  classical  Renaissance.  That  is  to  say,  the  early 
church  fathers,  Greek  and  Latin,  were  studied;  and  the 
Greek  versions  of  the  Scriptures  were  compared  with  the 
Vulgate.  Such  study  led  in  time  to  questioning  of  some  of 
the  customs  and  doctrines  of  the  medieval  Church  and  so 
had  an  important  bearing  upon  the  Reformation. 

A  further  development  of  Italian  literature  accompanied 
the  Italian  Renaissance.  Together  with  Dante  and  Pe- 
trarch, Boccaccio  (13 13-1375)  completes  the  trio  Italian 
of  great  writers  who  initiated  this  movement.  He  literature 
is  known  especially  for  his  Decameron,  a  collection  of  stories 
of  which  Chaucer  made  much  use  later  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury in  England.  Boccaccio  himself,  like  Petrarch,  thought 
his  Latin  works  of  more  value,  and  for  a  time  the  humanists 
generally  scorned  to  write  in  Italian.  Lorenzo  de'  Medici, 
however,  helped  restore  the  vernacular  to  favor  by  inciting 
the  writers  under  his  patronage  to  literary  composition  in 
Italian  and  by  setting  the  example  himself.  Among  the 
favorite  literary  forms  of  the  time  were  the  sonnet  and  idyll 
and  the  novella  or  short  story.  The  romantic  epic  of  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  had  continued  to  find  favor 
among  the  Italians;  and  in  the  later  fifteenth  century  Pulci 
(1431-1487)  at  Florence  and  Boiardo  (1434-1494)  at  Ferrara 
were  preparing  the  way  for  the  greater  poetry  of  Ariosto 
and  Tasso  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Pulci's  Morgante  Mag- 
giore  recounted  partly  in  a  serious  and  partly  in  a  burlesque 
tone  the  adventures  of  the  famous  Roland  and  a  giant  named 
Morgante  whom  he  conquers  and  converts.  Boiardo,  who 
was  also  a  lyric  and  dramatic  poet,  told  of  Roland  in  love  in 
his  Orlando  innamorato.  Some  attempt  was  made  to  de- 
velop the  drama  in  Italian,  following  classical  models,  but 
without  the  success  attained  later  in  other  lands.   A  series 


594        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

of  able  historians  at  Florence,  of  whom  we  have  already  had 
occasion  to  mention  the  two  greatest,  Guicciardini  and 
Machiavelli,  gave  attention  to  economic  as  well  as  military 
and  diplomatic  matters.  Baldassare  Castiglione  (1478- 
1539),  in  his  Book  of  the  Courtier ^  set  forth  the  amenities 
of  social  life  among  the  Italians  of  the  Renaissance. 

The  invention  of  printing  with  separate  types  for  each 
letter  facilitated  greatly  the  labors  of  the  later  humanists 
Invention  and  spread  the  results  of  their  work  abroad  in 
of  printing  Europe.  This  invention  was  first  employed  about 
1450,  either  at  Mainz  on  the  Rhine  by  Gutenberg  and 
others,  or  at  Haarlem  in  the  Netherlands  by  Coster.  The 
printing-press  greatly  increased  the  number  and  reduced 
the  cost  of  books,  so  that  much  larger  libraries  were  made 
possible.  Although  some  old  manuscripts  are  as  legible 
and  more  beautiful  than  printed  books,  the  average  printed 
page  would  be  much  easier  to  read  and  copies  would  not 
differ  in  details  as  different  manuscripts  do.  Proof-read- 
ing provides  an  opportunity  to  avoid  the  errors  or  correc- 
tions inevitable  in  a  manuscript.  For  some  time,  however, 
printed  books  continued  to  look  a  great  deal  like  the  man- 
uscripts, and  the  many  abbreviations  and  signs  for  familiar 
words  or  for  repeatedly  occurring  endings  which  copiers  by 
hand  had  employed  to  shorten  their  labors  were  perpetuated 
in  the  printed  page  as  well. 

More  persons  would  now  become  readers  and  reading 
matter  could  be  got  to  them  more  rapidly.  The  pamphlet. 
Some  ulti-  ^^^  broadside,  the  periodical,  and  all  the  other 
mate  results    species  of  ephemeral  literature  were  now  bound 

prin  ing  ^^  ^^  bom  soon.  The  day  of  the  orator  and  the 
troubadour  was  over:  men  could  read  now  instead  of  listen. 
In  education  the  textbook  would  take  the  place  of  lectures, 
reading  would  replace  personal  tuition;  and  a  more  uni- 
versal popular  education  was  made  possible.  In  scholarship 
the  chief  requisite  now  became  bibliography  rather  than  rote 
memory.  In  due  time  authors  would  be  able  to  appeal  to  pub- 
lishers and  reading  public  instead  of  having  to  rely  upon  rich 
or  noble  patrons.  Many  of  these  changes,  however,  have 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  595 

come  very  slowly.  And  just  as  there  were  good  —  some  say, 
better  —  letter-writers  in  the  days  before  cheap  postage  and 
typewriters,  so  there  were  great  authors  who  wasted  neither 
precious  words  nor  paper  in  the  period  before  the  invention 
of  printing.  When  both  readers  and  writers  had  to  go  to  a 
great  deal  of  trouble,  there  naturally  was  much  less  written 
and  read,  but  both  reading  and  writing  were  probably  done 
more  thoroughly  on  the  average. 

Some  tendencies  toward  humanism  are  noticeable  in 
France  and  England  during  the  late  fourteenth  and  the 
fifteenth    centuries,    but   they   were    sporadic.  „ 

'  -^  ^  Humanism 

The  Renaissance  began  first  to  be  really  felt  in  in  other 
England  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII  and  in  France 
in  that  of  Charles  VIII,  who  both  ruled  at  the  very  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  German  humanism  started  a  little 
earlier  and  ran  its  course  with  more  vehemence.  The  move- 
ment in  Germany  was  practically  crowded  into  the  last 
quarter  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth 
centuries,  and  then  soon  faded  into  the  religious  reformation. 


596        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 


EXERCISES  AND   READINGS 

Secondary  Accounts  of  the  Renaissance. 

Sedgwick,  Short  History  of  Italy,  chaps,  xix-xxvill,  pp.  182-292. 

Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  277-84,  Voigt,  "Classical 
Learningin  the  Middle  Ages";  pp.  285-309,  Graf,  "The  Latin  Classics 
in  the  Middle  Ages";  pp-  474-90,  Gebhart,  "Antecedents  of  the 
Renaissance";  pp.  524-46,  Neumann,  "Relation  of  Antiquity  to  the 
Renaissance."   (This  last  selection  is  especially  good.) 

Cambridge  Modern  History,  vol.  I,  532-6S,  Jebb,  "  The  Classical  Renais- 
sance in  Italy." 

J.  A.  Symonds,  The  Age  of  the  Despots;  chap,  iii,  "The  Despots";  iv, 
"The  Republics";  V,  "Florentine  Historians";  vii,  "Popes  of  the 
Renaissance." 

Symonds,  Short  History  oj  the  Italian  Renaissance  (an  abridgment  of 
The  Age  of  the  Despots  and  Symonds's  other  works  on  the  Italian 
Renaissance);  chap,  iii,  "Rule  of  the  Despots";  iv,  "  Popes  of  the 
Renaissance";  viii,  "Florentine  Historians";  ix,  x,  xi,  "The  Hu- 
manists"; XIII,  "Vernacular  Literature." 

Venice:  The  Council  of  Ten. 

H.  E.   Brown,  Venice;  an  Historical  Sketch  (2d  edition,  1895),  pp.  176- 

83. 
Venetian  Civilization. 

W.  R.  Thayer,  Short  History  of  Venice,  chaps,  x  and  xi. 

Florence  and  the  Medici. 

Lodge,  The  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  chap,  xiv,  pp.  288-314. 
Ewart,  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  any  chapter. 

Armstrong,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici;  especially  chapters  ix  and  x  on  literature 
and  art. 

Letters  of  Petrarch. 

Robinson,  Readings  in  Etiropean  History,  vol.  I,  pp.  524-28;  or  more 
fully  in  Robinson  and  Rolfe,  Petrarch. 

Other  Source  Readings. 

Whitcomb,  A  Literary  Source  Booh  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  pp.  15- 
24,  27-29,  35-36,  40-62,  91-101. 

Castiglione's  The  Book  of  the  Courtier  has  been  translated  into  English 
by  Opdycke.  Some  of  the  Italian  romantic  epics,  too,  have  been 
translated  into  English  verse. 

Machiavelli,  The  Prince  (English  translation).  This  little  work  can  al- 
most be  read  through  at  one  sitting.  Some  of  its  examples  and  allusions 
can  be  better  understood  after  reading  the  last  chapter  of  this  book. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

THE  ITALIAN  RENAISSANCE:  FINE  ARTS  AND  VOYAGES 
OF    DISCOVERY 

The  Italian  Renaissance  is  one  of  the  great  periods  in  the 
history  of  art.   Artists  of  the  first  rank  were  too  numerous 
to  mention  each  individually  here,  and  there  was  j^^  ^     j^ 
a  vast  output  of  masterpieces.    In  the  palace  of  in  the  his- 
the  popes  at  Rome  paintings  by  old  masters  that    °^^  ° 
would  command  a  high  price  to-day  were  actually  erased 
to  make  room  for  new  creations.    Artistic  sensibility  was 
widespread   through   the   population.     Both   Church   and 
State  were  eager  patrons  and  employers  of  the  artists,  and 
the  public  appreciated  their  genius.   In  short,  "Art  was  the 
oxygen  of  Renaissance  life." 

The  chief  contemporary  account  of  the  biographies  of  the 
artists  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  is  their  Lives  by  Vasari, 
himself  an  artist  at  the  close  of  the  movement.  Vasari's 
His  work  aimed  to  do  for  the  Italian  artists  what  ^^^^^ 
Plutarch's  Lives  had  done  for  the  great  statesmen  and  gen- 
erals of  classical  antiquity.  Vasari  tried  to  cover  too  vast 
a  field  to  attain  critical  accuracy  in  all  the  details  of  the 
lives  of  his  heroes,  and  even  his  art  criticism  has  often  not 
met  with  modern  approval.  Recent  investigators  have  gone 
back  of  his  biographical  essays,  most  of  which  are  after 
all  secondary  sources,  to  family  and  state  papers  containing 
original  bits  of  biographical  information  which  enable  them 
to  rectify  dates  in  the  artists'  careers  or  to  revise  Vasari's 
estimates  of  their  personalities.  Frescoes  and  canvases 
have  been  scrutinized  with  the  help  of  photography  and 
microscope,  and  thus  lost  masterpieces  have  been  redis- 
covered or  it  has  been  found  that  this  painting  has  been  in- 
correctly attributed  to  that  artist.  Vasari,  nevertheless,  re- 
mains the  foundation  upon  which  such  superior  historical 


598        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

criticism  is  based,  and  it  is  to  him  that  the  reader  should 
still  turn  for  the  spirit,  the  gossip,  and  the  relish  of  the  age, 
while  only  the  masterpieces  themselves  do  justice  to  the 
genius  of  the  artists.  We  may  also  catch  something  of  the 
feeling  of  the  times  from  the  racy,  if  somewhat  incred- 
ible, autobiography  of  the  self-confessed  genius,  goldsmith, 
sculptor,  musician,  and  desperado,  Benvenuto  Cellini.  Both 
he  and  Vasari  were  Florentines  of  the  sixteenth  century  as 
Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  Giotto,  and  Brunelleschi  had 
been  Florentines  two  hundred  years  before.  It  was  not  un- 
fitting that  the  gifted  city  where  the  first  sparks  of  the  Ital- 
ian Renaissance  were  struck  should  also  be  the  spot  where 
the  last  ashes  of  the  movement  were  collected.  It  is  to 
be  remembered,  however,  that  Vasari  sometimes  overem- 
phasizes the  importance  of  his  fellow  Florentines. 

The  artists  impress  us  favorably  compared  to  the  des- 
pots and  humanists.  They  were  devoted  to  their  art  where 
^.       ^         the  despots  were  intent  on  power  and  where  the 

Character  y  ... 

of  the  art-  humanists  were  solicitous  for  their  own  fame. 
*^  ^  While  so  many  despots  disregarded  moral  con- 

siderations, few  of  the  artists  were  afiflicted  with  what  is 
sometimes  called  the  artistic  temperament.  Many  were 
affable,  generous,  and  kindly,  or  frugal,  honest,  and  in- 
dustrious. Even  Vasari  does  not  always  do  them  justice. 
Fra  Lippo  Lippi,  whom  he  depicts  as  a  jovial  spendthrift 
and  libertine,  seems  not  to  have  fallen  in  love  until  he  was 
fifty,  and  to  have  made  great  sacrifices  of  his  own  comfort 
in  order  to  provide  for  his  nieces.  It  is  also  doubtful  if 
Andrea  del  Sarto  was  an  embezzler.  Andrea  del  Castagno 
has  been  shown  to  have  died  several  years  before  the  man 
whom  he  was  said  to  have  assassinated.  Perugino,  instead 
of  being  a  miser  and  atheist,  "figures  in  the  original  docu- 
ments as  a  generous  giver,  bestowing  his  time  and  labor 
upon  religious  confraternities  for  little  or  no  pay."  The 
artists  were  natural  where  the  humanists  seem  sentimental 
and  affected.  While  the  humanists  imitated  the  writings  of 
classical  antiquity,  the  artists  experimented  and  worked  out 
new  methods.    The  humanists  were  scholars;  the  artists 


THE  ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  599 

were  original  geniuses.  Their  versatility  is  also  noteworthy; 
many  were  masters  of  more  than  one  fine  art. 

Of  the  three  great  fine  arts  architecture  was  the  least  im- 
portant during  the  Italian  Renaissance.  An  abundance  of 
churches  and  secular  buildings  had  already  been  g^^jj^j.  j^^j. 
constructed  in  the  preceding  medieval  period  ian  archi- 
in  both  the  Romanesque  and  the  Italian  Gothic 
style,  while  Byzantine  influence  had  come  in  here  and  there, 
notably  at  Venice  in  the  church  of  St.  Mark  with  its  domes 
and  mosaics,  its  marbles  and  metal-work.  The  chief  his- 
toric public  edifices  which  the  tourist  still  sees  in  the  Italian 
cities,  such  as  the  palace  of  the  podesta  or  the  hall  of  the 
merchants,  had  already  been  built  in  medieval  style  before 
the  time  of  the  Renaissance.  To  take  Venice  again  as  an 
example,  the  Palace  of  the  Doge  had  a  Gothic  fagade  and 
many  of  the  old  private  palaces  lining  the  canals  are  of 
Gothic  style,  like  the  beautiful  Ca  d'  Oro  (House  of  Gold). 
In  short,  "Italy  before  the  age  of  the  Renaissance  proper 
found  herself  provided  with  churches  and  palaces,  which 
were  destined  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  to  be 
adorned  with  frescoes  and  statues." 

Nevertheless,  a  considerable  change  took  place  in  archi- 
tecture in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  Italians 
had  never  grasped  the  principles  of  Gothic  con-  j^^^^jg. 
struction  thoroughly,  and  were  ready  to  revert  sance  archi- 
to  Romanesque  methods  and  to  study  the  ruins 
and  monuments  of  ancient  Rome  and  imitate  these.  Changes 
were  also  made  conformably  to  the  more  peaceful  and  lux- 
urious urban  life  of  this  period.  The  Renaissance  architects 
were  not  so  much  scientific  builders  as  they  were  decorators 
and  designers.  Many  of  them,  indeed,  were  primarily  paint- 
ers or  sculptors,  so  that  if  in  the  French  Gothic  art  sculp- 
ture was  subordinated  to  architecture,  in  the  Italian  Ren- 
aissance we  may  say  that  construction  was  rather  neglected 
for  appearance.  Brunelleschi  (i 377-1446)  is  regarded  as 
the  earliest  great  Renaissance  architect,  while  details  from 
ancient  Roman  architecture  were  introduced  in  large  measure 
by  another  Florentine,  Leon  Battista  Alberti  (1404- 1472). 


600        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

The  outer  walls  of  municipal  buildings  and  private  palaces 
now  lost  their  rough  fortress-like  appearance,  or  retained  a 
slight  relic  of  it  in  rusticated  stonework  or  in  iron  bars  before 
the  windows  of  the  ground  floor.  Rustication,  however,  soon 
disappeared  and  the  facing  of  the  walls  became  smooth  and 
elegant  with  the  component  stones  carefully  cut  and  with 
attention  given  to  the  arrangement  of  the  incisions  or 
grooves  between  them.  Along  the  edge  of  the  roof  elabo- 
rately ornamented  cornices  took  the  place  of  medieval  bat- 
tlements. Medallions  and  friezes,  sculptured  in  low  relief, 
decorated  the  otherwise  rather  bare  walls,  and  inside  the 
building  the  ceilings  were  coffered  and  the  walls  paneled. 
The  three  classical  orders  in  column  and  capital  were  also 
now  restored  to  favor  and  exclusively  employed.  The  hori- 
zontal lines  of  the  Greek  temple,  or  the  round  arches  and 
solid  piers  of  Roman  buildings  like  the  Colosseum,  were 
im.itated.  The  shape  of  rooms  and  windows,  as  well  as  the 
general  outline  of  buildings,  all  tended  to  become  rectangu- 
lar, in  which  respect  they  were  more  like  modern  and  less 
like  medieval  edifices,  which  had  intricate  arcades,  vaulted 
halls,  and  lofty  towers.  A  common  detail  of  Renaissance 
architecture,  which  may  still  be  seen  in  modern  houses, 
was  the  placing  over  the  windows  of  ornamental  gables, 
either  triangular  like  the  pediment  of  a  Greek  temple  or 
curv'ed  like  a  Roman  arch.  From  this  period,  too,  dates  the 
delusion  that  the  windows  of  a  mansion  should  be  arranged 
in  regular  rows  and  exactly  above  one  another.  Regularity 
and  uniformity,  indeed,  now  triumphed  too  much  in  archi- 
tecture over  the  picturesque  and  exquisite.  In  ecclesiastical 
architecture  a  new  and  disagreeable  detail  was  the  employ- 
ment of  huge  flat  scrolls  at  either  side  of  the  fagade  of  the 
church  to  conceal  the  meeting  of  nave  and  aisle.  The  largest 
structure  of  the  Renaissance  was  the  vast  church  of  St. 
Peter  at  Rome,  which  some  greatly  admire  and  others 
sharply  criticize,  but  it  was  barely  begun  in  our  period  and 
was  not  completed  until  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  great  dome  is  the  chief  feature  of  St.  Peter's,  and  the 
dome  has  often  been  represented  as  especially  characteristic 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  6oi 

of  Renaissance  architecture.  Brunelleschi's  bold  dome  at 
Florence,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet  in  diameter  and 
one  hundred  and  forty-five  feet  in  height,  is  often  spoken 
of  as  the  first  masterpiece  of  Renaissance  architecture.  But 
it  was  the  crowning  feature  of  a  cathedral  in  Italian  Gothic 
style,  and  its  builder  was  able  to  profit  by  a  study  of  the 
earlier  medieval  dome  of  the  baptistery  just  across  the 
square.  Such  domes  as  this  and  that  of  St.  Peter's,  which 
are  raised  on  drums  and  pointed  in  shape,  rise  much  higher 
above  the  rest  of  the  building  than  the  low  domes  of  the 
Roman  Pantheon  or  Byzantine  St.  Sophia.  To  such  hemi- 
spherical domes  they  stand  in  much  the  same  relation  that 
a  pointed  Gothic  arch  does  to  a  round  Roman  arch.  They 
may  be  regarded,  then,  as  a  last  stage  of  medieval  archi- 
tecture rather  than  as  a  revival  due  to  the  study  of  anti- 
quity. 

Among  the  gifted  sculptors,  numerous  but  for  the  most 
part  anonymous,  who  were  at  work  in  Italy  and  other  lands 
during  the  thirteenth  century,  a  certain  Niccola  x^.  . 
of  Pisa  (c.  1 206- 1 2  78)  has  attracted  considerable  Pisano  and 
notice  by  the  use  he  made  of  figures  on  an  an-  '°"° 
cient  sarcophagus  in  his  design  of  a  church  pulpit.  He  is, 
however,  too  early  to  be  classed  as  a  Renaissance  artist.  But 
the  paintings  of  Giotto  {c.  1 266-1 337),  who  was  a  contem- 
porary of  Dante  on  the  one  hand  and  of  Petrarch  on  the 
other,  bring  us  to  the  borderland  of  the  Renaissance  period. 
North  of  the  Alps  painting  had  developed  little  as  yet  in 
the  Middle  Ages  except  for  the  miniatures  in  manuscripts 
and  the  designs  for  stained-glass  windows.  In  Italy  there  was 
more  space  on  the  walls  of  churches  and  monasteries  for  mo- 
saics or  for  fresco  paintings.  A  fresco  is  painted  directly 
upon  the  wall  or  ceiling  while  the  plaster  is  still  moist.  In 
many  respects  Giotto's  frescoes  were  still  crude  and  awk- 
ward. Objects  were  not  of  the  right  size  compared  to  other 
objects  nor  in  the  correct  perspective,  and  his  figures  were 
sometimes  stiff.  But  to  his  contemporaries  his  paintings 
were  a  revelation  in  lifelikeness  and  fidelity  to  nature.  The 
point  was  that  instead  of  keeping  his  pictures  symbolical 


6o3        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

in  the  earlier  fashion,  Giotto  tried  to  have  them  tell  an 
actual  human  story  either  from  the  Bible  or  the  life  of  St. 
Francis.  He  put  in  monks  such  as  people  saw  every  day,  and 
beds  and  trees  and  rocks  and  other  familiar  objects.  Often 
these  were  crudely  executed  or  scarcely  more  than  indi- 
cated, like  the  scenery  in  an  Elizabethan  drama.  Indeed, 
when  Giotto  tries  to  picture  both  the  inside  and  the  outside 
of  a  house  at  once,  the  result  is  something  that  looks  very 
much  like  a  theatrical  stage.  And  that  suggests  the  secret 
of  his  success ;  he  was  not  so  much  realistic  as  he  was  dra- 
matic; he  put  action  into  his  pictures  and  held  the  attention 
of  the  observer.  Niccola  of  Pisa  had  found  bits  of  classical 
sculpture  to  inspire  him,  but  there  were  no  ancient  paint- 
ings available  for  Giotto  to  study.  Instead  he  struck  out  a 
new  path  by  himself.  Such  originality  was  to  be  character- 
istic of  Renaissance  painting,  and  by  the  next  century  of  its 
sculpture.  Giotto  also  was  a  forerunner  of  the  later  ar- 
tists in  his  versatility,  for  he  designed  the  stately  campanile 
which  stands  by  the  cathedral  at  Florence. 

Leonardo  da  Vinci,  probably  the  greatest  all-round  genius 
that  the  Italian  Renaissance  produced,  tells  us  that  "after 
.  Giotto  the  art  of  painting  declined  again  be- 
cause every  one  imitated  the  pictures  that  were 
already  done.  Thus  it  went  until  Tommaso  of  Florence, 
nicknamed  Masaccio,  showed  by  his  perfect  works  how  those 
who  take  for  their  standard  anything  but  nature,  the  mis- 
tress of  all  masters,  weary  themselves  in  vain."  Masaccio 
also  illustrates  the  precocious  genius  of  many  Italian  art- 
ists, since  his  short  life  was  bounded  by  the  years  1401 
and  1429.  Nevertheless  his  frescoes  were  the  inspiration  of 
the  greatest  masters  for  the  rest  of  the  century,  during  which 
the  art  advanced  to  the  highest  point  in  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
and  his  fellows. 

With  Masaccio  the  early  Renaissance  at  Florence  may 
-,,  J  be  regarded  as  definitely  opened.  Contemporary 
Renaissance  with  him  was  the  great  architect  Brunelleschi,  and 
at  Florence  j^  ^^^  ^j^^  j^  ^^^  ^^^^  j^^jj  ^^  ^^^  fifteenth  cen- 
tury that  the  art  of  sculpture  profited  by  the  genius  of  three 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  603 

great  Florentines,  Donatello,  Ghlberti,  and  Luca  della  Rob- 
bia.  The  last  is  especially  famed  for  his  terra-cottas ;  Ghi- 
berti,  for  his  bronze  doors  with  their  panels  full  of  sculpture 
in  relief  in  the  baptistery  at  Florence,  just  across  the  square 
from  Giotto's  tower  and  Brunelleschi's  dome. 

Donatello  had  begun  his  artistic  career  by  1406.  For  a 
score  or  more  of  years  he  worked  in  Florence  on  the  sculp- 
tures of  the  cathedral  and  campanile  and  in  com-  q^^.^^^.  ^^^ 
petition  with  Brunelleschi  and  Ghiberti.  From  character  of 
1413  to  1428  Ghiberti  and  he  labored  at  statues 
for  the  Or  San  Michele.  He  also  visited  Siena,  Venice, 
Mantua,  Modena,  Ferrara,  and  Prato,  and  worked  for  sev- 
eral years  in  Padua.  In  1433  he  was  at  Rome  aiding  in  the 
preparations  for  the  imperial  coronation  of  Sigismund.  Later 
he  helped  Cosimo  de'  Medici  adorn  his  palace  for  humanists 
with  appropriate  sculptures.  Many  stories  are  told  of  Dona- 
tello's  simple  and  unassuming  character.  He  is  said  to  have 
kept  his  money  in  a  basket  hung  from  the  roof  with  a  cord 
attached  by  which  it  might  be  lowered  by  any  friend  who 
wished  to  help  himself.  His  patrons,  the  Medici,  presented 
him  on  one  occasion  with  a  sumptuous  costume  and  in  his 
old  age  with  a  small  estate  on  which  to  retire,  but  he  re- 
turned the  one  as  too  fine  for  him  to  wear  and  the  other 
as  too  much  bother  for  him  to  maintain.  He  had,  however, 
as  further  anecdotes  in  Vasari  illustrate,  little  patience  with 
business  men  who  ventured  to  criticize  his  art  or  who  tried 
to  beat  him  down  on  his  prices.  Donatello  was  interested  in 
the  collection  of  classical  antiquities,  and  his  sculpture  is 
described  by  Vasari  as  having  "the  closest  resemblance  to 
the  Greeks  and  Romans" ;  but  he  was  even  more  of  a  realist 
and  follower  of  nature. 

Both  the  style  of  Donatello  and  the  themes  of  his  sculp- 
ture were  varied,  and  a  list  of  some  of  his  works  will  give 
us  a  notion  of  the  scope  of  Renaissance  art.  His  His  chief 
Marzocco,  or  seated  lion,  is  an  excellent  and  dig-  ^^^^^^^ 
nified  example  of  animal  sculpture.  His  frieze  of  boys  run- 
ning and  laughing  made  Vasari  regard  him  as  the  ' '  greatest 
master  of  bas-relief."    His  David,  depicted  as  a  shepherd 


6o4        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

boy,  was  the  first  nude  bronze  statue  cast  since  Roman 
times.  His  funeral  monument  for  Pope  John  XXIII  in  the 
baptistery  at  Florence  became  the  model  for  many  similar 
works  with  their  combination  of  classical  sculpture  and 
architecture.  His  portrait  bust  of  Niccolo  da  Uzzano  is  a 
wonderful  example  of  delineation  of  character.  His  bronze 
statue  of  Gattamelata,  a  Venetian  mercenary  general,  on 
horseback,  executed  at  Padua  in  1453,  is,  after  the  Col- 
leoni  monument  in  Venice,  the  finest  equestrian  statue  of 
the  Renaissance.  Perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  his  works  was 
his  St.  George.  It  is  unlike  most  classical  statues,  for  the 
young  saint  is  represented  clad  in  medieval  armor  and  his 
fiery  gaze  is  fixed  directly  on  the  beholder,  not  downcast 
in  passive  beauty.  Moreover,  the  effect  striven  for  is  not  so 
much  physical  beauty  and  grace  as  vigor  and  energy,  intel- 
lectual character  and  moral  purpose.  Vasari  has  well  de- 
scribed it:  "For  the  gild  of  armorers  Donatello  executed  a 
most  animated  figure  of  St.  George  in  his  armor.  The  bright- 
ness of  youthful  beauty,  generosity,  and  bravery  shine  forth 
in  his  face.  His  attitude  gives  evidence  of  a  proud  and  ter- 
rible impetuosity.  The  character  of  the  saint  is  indeed 
expressed  most  wonderfully  and  life  seems  to  move  within 
that  stone." 

During  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  was 
no  single  sculptor  equal  to  Donatello,  but  the  decorative  side 
Progress  in  of  the  art  was  developed  and  further  improve- 
painting  ment  was  made  in  technique.  Meanwhile  the 
painters  had  been  learning  many  lessons.  Those  who  had 
served,  as  many  did,  an  apprenticeship  in  the  workshops  of 
sculptors  or  goldsmiths  learned  lessons  in  anatomy  and  how 
to  represent  the  human  figure  in  a  natural  and  correct  way. 
Progress  was  also  made  in  designing,  some  artists  experi- 
mented with  colors,  and  others  worked  out  the  laws  of  fore- 
shortening and  perspective.  Oil  painting  had  been  intro- 
duced at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  when  the  Flemish 
painter.  Van  Eyck,  employed  it  on  large  canvases.  For  the 
cities  of  Flanders  in  the  fifteenth  century  had  painters  sec- 
ond only  to  the  Italians.  The  themes  of  paintings  continued 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  605 

to  be  for  the  most  part  Scriptural  —  Madonnas  and  Holy 
Families,  or  scenes  drawn  from  church  history  and  legend. 
This  was  partly  because  the  Church  was  still  the  chief  em- 
ployer of  artists,  partly  because  the  ideal  interests  of  most 
people  were  still  prevailingly  religious.  Classical  subjects, 
however,  were  also  depicted  and  bits  of  classical  detail  were 
introduced  in  other  paintings.  Many  portraits  of  contem- 
poraries were  painted,  and  contemporary  costumes  and 
models  and  Italian  scenery  were  employed  in  depicting 
Biblical  scenes  in  ancient  Palestine.  The  faces  of  the  models 
were,  indeed,  sometimes  too  closely  followed.  Landscape 
and  architecture  were  shown  in  the  backgrounds,  and  animal 
and  floral  life  were  often  brought  in.  Even  in  a  portrait  or 
group  picture  an  exquisite  landscape  may  be  visible  through 
an  open  window.  But  landscapes  and  still  life  were  not 
painted  separately  as  yet. 

There  were  now  many  schools  of  painting  scattered  over 
central  and  northern  Italy  —  Tuscan,  Florentine,  Umbrian, 
Lombard,  Sienese,  and  so  on.  Among  the  many  Noted  paint- 
great  masters  it  is  embarrassing  to  attempt  a  fifteenth^ 
selection.  FraAngelico  (1387-1455),  back  in  the  century 
first  half  of  the  century,  lacks  many  of  the  merits  of  the 
later  masters,  but  is  celebrated  for  the  gleaming  colors  of  his 
paintings  and  for  the  spiritual  rapture  which  shines  from 
their  angelic  faces.  Toward  the  century's  close  come  four 
great  artists:  Ghirlandajo  (1449-1494),  noted  for  his  por- 
traits and  realism;  Botticelli  (1444-1510),  admired  for  the 
dreamy  beauty  of  his  graceful  figures  and  lovely  "decora- 
tive composition";  Signorelli  (1442-1524),  who  excelled  in 
forcefulness  and  in  representing  muscular  movement ;  Peru- 
gino  (1446- 1 524),  who  expressed  religious  contemplation 
and  ecstasy  with  consummate  skill. 

With  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  come  to  the 
three  supreme  geniuses  who  mark  the  "High  Renaissance," 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  (1452-1519),  Raphael  (1483-  The"Hi  h 
1520),    and    Michelangelo    (1475-1564).     Leo-  Renais- 
nardo,  although  also  a  sculptor,  architect,  and  ^^^^^ 
engineer,  was  primarily  a  painter.   As  such  he  is  noted  for 


6o6        THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

his  composition,  his  use  of  light  and  shade,  and  for  his  type 
of  face;  but  some  of  his  works  have  suffered  from  his  ex- 
cessive zeal  in  experimenting  with  uncertain  colors.  Like 
Perugino  and  another  great  artist  named  Lorenzo  di  Credi, 
Leonardo  had  been  a  pupil  of  Verrochio,  the  sculptor  of  the 
Colleoni  statue.  Leonardo  spent  much  time  at  Milan  and 
in  France,  He  was  a  man  both  of  beauty  and  grace  and  of 
great  physical  strength.  His  mind  also  was  remarkable,  and 
from  notebooks  which  he  left  behind  him,  although  they  are 
somewhat  cryptic  owing  to  such  habits  of  his  as  writing 
backwards  with  his  left  hand,  it  has  been  inferred  that  he 
was  interested  in  and  more  or  less  of  an  adept  at  almost 
every  branch  of  art,  science,  and  philosophy.  He  was  some- 
thing of  a  humanist  and  musician  and  also  had  a  mechanical 
turn  of  mind.  Some  of  the  sketches  in  his  notebooks  seem 
to  forecast  modern  inventions. 

Raphael  of  Urbino  was  "the  great  harvester"  and  "se- 
rene perfecter"  whose  art  formed  the  climax  to  the  previ- 
ous period  of  experiment  and  evolution  in  painting.  He  was 
blest  with  an  even  temperament  as  well  as  the  greatest 
genius,  and  so  was  able  to  cooperate  harmoniously  with 
others  and  in  the  course  of  his  brief  life  to  amass  the  largest 
fortune  of  any  artist  of  his  time.  He  was  given  such  a  multi- 
tude of  commissions  that  he  had  to  have  a  corps  of  assistants 
and  died  at  thirty-seven  of  overwork.  This  participation  of 
assistants  makes  some  of  the  works  attributed  to  him  un- 
equal in  execution  and  defective  in  detail. 

Michelangelo,  who  was  perhaps  even  greater  as  a  sculptor 
than  as  a  painter  and  who  also  was  a  distinguished  architect 
and  engineer,  had  a  long  career  extending  beyond  the  end  of 
our  period.  Both  as  painter  and  sculptor  he  displayed  the 
greatest  daring  and  ability  in  representing  the  nude  human 
body  in  every  variety  of  posture.  His  personal  habits  are 
interestingly  described  by  Vasari:  "In  all  things  Michel- 
agnolo  was  exceedingly  moderate;  ever  intent  upon  his  work 
during  the  period  of  youth,  he  contented  himself  with  a  lit- 
tle bread  and  wine;  and  at  a  later  period,  until  he  had  fin- 
ished the  [Sistine]  Chapel,  namely,  it  was  his  habit  to  take 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  607 

but  a  frugal  refreshment  at  the  close  of  his  day's  work.  Al- 
though rich,  he  lived  like  a  poor  man.  Rarely  did  any  friend 
or  other  person  eat  at  his  table;  and  he  would  accept  no  pres- 
ents, considering  that  he  would  be  bound  to  any  one  who 
offered  him  such.  His  temperance  kept  him  in  constant 
activity  and  he  slept  very  little,  frequently  rising  in  the 
night  because  he  could  not  sleep  and  resuming  his  labors 
with  the  chisel.  For  these  occasions  he  had  made  himself 
a  cap  of  pasteboard  in  the  center  of  which  he  placed  his 
candle,  which  thus  gave  him  light  without  encumbering  his 
hands.  In  his  youth  he  frequently  slept  in  his  clothes;  being 
wearied  with  his  labors,  he  had  no  mind  to  undress  merely 
that  he  might  have  to  dress  again.  In  his  latter  years  he 
wore  stockings  of  dog-skin  for  months  together,  and  when 
these  were  removed,  the  skin  of  the  leg  sometimes  came 
with  them." 

With  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  dispersion 
of  artists  from  Florence  which  followed  the  death  of  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  and  the  rise  of  the  stern  reformer  of  Rome  be- 
religion  and  manners,  Savonarola,  Rome  became  a^tiSIc^  ^ 
the  great  center  of  the  artistic  Renaissance,  center 
especially  when  Pope  Julius  II  called  thither  Raphael  and 
Michelangelo  and  the  architect  Bramante.  There  Raphael 
decorated  the  Stanze  in  the  Vatican  with  a  series  of  great 
paintings,  and  Michelangelo  adorned  the  end  wall  of  the 
Sistine  Chapel  —  a  rectangular  apartment  so  named  after 
its  builder,  Sixtus  IV  —  with  his  Last  Judgment  and  the 
ceiling  with  his  sibyls  and  prophets  and  scenes  from  the 
creation  and  fall  of  man.  But  with  this  Roman  period  we 
must  take  our  leave  of  the  artistic  Renaissance,  omitting 
the  final  period  of  the  great  Venetian  school  of  painting  in 
the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  spread  of  Ren- 
aissance art  to  other  lands. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  overland  communication  and 
trade  with  the  Far  East  became  much  more  diffi-  cggg^jion  ^f 
cult  than  in  the  days  of  Marco  Polo.  The  cru-  overland 
sading  states  in  the  East  had  all  disappeared ;  the 
Byzantine  Empire  was  hastening  to  its  fall;  the  Ottoman 


6o8        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Turks  made  conditions  harder  for  merchants  and  travelers; 
and,  most  important  of  all,  the  Mongol  Empire  had  lost  its 
control  of  China  and  then  had  broken  up  into  contending 
parts.  Tamerlane  had  done  trade  and  economic  prosperity 
in  Persia  and  other  lands  great  damage.  By  the  latter  half  of 
the  fifteenth  century  the  Golden  Horde  had  lost  its  hold  on 
Russia.  Trade  from  the  East  became  practically  limited  to 
the  southern  sea  routes  from  the  Indian  Ocean  by  way  of  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  the  Red  Sea.  These  routes  were  controlled 
by  Mohammedan  traders  and  during  the  overland  passage 
from  the  heads  of  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Red  Sea  to  the 
Mediterranean,  the  wares  were  subject  to  several  expensive 
reloadings  and  duties.  Even  in  the  case  of  what  might  seem 
the  short  carry  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  the 
goods  were  first  landed  at  a  port  in  the  peninsula  of  Mount 
Sinai,  then  transported  by  land  to  Cairo,  then  transferred 
to  boats  and  taken  down  the  Nile  to  Rosetta,  then  loaded 
on  camels  again  and  carried  to  Alexandria.  At  each  stop- 
ping-place such  heavy  duties  were  levied  that  by  the  time 
the  goods  reached  the  Mediterranean  the  price  had  quad- 
rupled. Evidently  an  immense  saving  and  profit  would  be 
effected  by  any  one  who  discovered  an  all-sea  route  from 
European  ports  to  Malacca  and  Calicut,  the  two  chief  em- 
poriums of  the  Indian  Ocean. 

Meanwhile,  the  work  of  maritime  exploration  and  dis- 
covery, which  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
p  .  turies  had  been  chiefly  carried  on  by  Italians, 

Henry  the  was  Continued  by  the  Portuguese,  especially 
aviga  or  lifter  their  conquest  from  the  Mohammedans  in 
141 5  of  the  important  African  port,  Ceuta.  Under  the  di- 
rection of  one  of  the  king's  younger  sons.  Prince  Henry 
(1394-1460),  the  island  groups  in  the  Atlantic  were  re- 
visited and  settled,  and  expeditions  were  dispatched  farther 
and  farther  south  down  the  west  coast  of  the  African  con- 
tinent. As  governor  of  the  Portuguese  military  Order  of 
Christ,  Prince  Henry  was  aiming  to  do  in  the  Atlantic  what 
the  Teutonic  Knights  had  accomplished  in  the  Baltic; 
namely,  to  convert  heathen  natives  to  Christianity  and  to 


THE   ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  609 

secure  new  territory  for  the  Order  and  for  Portugal  In  the 
Atlantic  islands  and  on  the  Guinea  coast.  The  economic 
accompaniment  of  these  pious  and  political  motives  was 
a  profitable  trade  in  gold,  ivory,  and  negro  slaves,  in  cap- 
turing whom  the  Portuguese  became  very  proficient.  It  is 
doubtful  if  Prince  Henry  was  aiming  especially  at  the  cir- 
cumnavigation of  Africa  or  a  sea  route  to  the  Indies.  Nor 
did  he  personally  participate  in  these  voyages,  but  remained 
in  his  astronomical  observatory  on  a  sea-girt  promontory 
conning  works  of  history  and  mathematics.  It  has  never- 
theless become  customary  to  speak  of  him  as  "  Prince  Henry 
the  Navigator."  Before  his  death  the  Cape  Verde  Islands 
had  been  discovered  and  the  African  coast  explored  almost 
to  Sierra  Leone. 

After  Prince  Henry's  death  the  voyages  went  on  just  the 
same.  The  equator  was  crossed  in  1472-73,  the  mouth  of  the 
Congo  was  reached  in  1484,  and  two  or  three  p^j-ther 
years  later  Bartholomew  Diaz  rounded  the  Cape  Portuguese 
of  Good  Hope  and  sailed  far  enough  beyond  it  to  ^^^  °^^  '°" 
make  sure  that  the  southernmost  extremity  of  the  continent 
had  at  last  been  reached.  At  the  same  time  that  Diaz  was 
rounding  the  Cape,  King  John  II  of  Portugal  sent  forth 
three  other  expeditions :  one  to  Abyssinia  by  way  of  Egypt 
and  the  Red  Sea,  one  to  endeavor  to  cross  Africa  overland 
from  the  Senegal,  and  one  to  try  to  sail  northeast  around 
Europe  to  China  and  India.  During  the  second  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  too,  as  records  in  Portuguese  archives 
show,  various  individuals  were  granted  rights  to  islands  in 
the  Western  ocean  which  they  had  discovered  or  hoped  to 
find.  English  seamen  from  Bristol  also  had  been  sailing 
westward  into  the  Atlantic. 

But  the  scheme  which  was  destined  to  prove  most  fruit- 
ful was  that  in  which  a  Genoese  sailor,  named  Christopher 
Columbus,  finally  succeeded  in  enlisting  the  Christopher 
support  of  the  Spanish  court  after  unsuccessful  Columbus 
overtures  to  other  governments.  In  1474  Columbus  had 
gone  to  the  Madeira  Islands,  had  married  there,  and  then 
embarked  on  a  voyage  to  the  north  which  took  him  beyond 


6io        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Iceland.  During  his  residence  and  voyages  in  these  distant 
outposts  of  European  civilization  he  familiarized  himself 
with  Western  waters  and  deep-sea  sailing,  and  probably 
heard  many  tales  of  distant  lands  and  seas.  We  have  al- 
ready noted  that  medieval  scholars  knew  that  the  world  was 
round  and  had  speculated  as  to  the  distance  between  the 
western  shores  of  Spain  and  the  easternmost  coasts  of  Asia. 
In  the  same  year  that  Columbus  went  to  the  Madeiras, 
Toscanelli,  a  Florentine  scholar,  in  response  to  inquiries 
from  Lisbon  had  written  to  the  Portuguese  king  that  it  was 
possible  to  reach  China  by  sailing  west  and  had  sent  a  chart 
to  illustrate  his  argument.  The  Portuguese  king  failed  to 
follow  Toscanelli's  advice,  but  Columbus,  although  not  a 
very  learned  man,  got  hold  of  this  idea  and  determined  to 
put  it  to  the  test  by  a  voyage  straight  westward  to  Cathay. 
Sailing  from  Palos  with  three  caravels  provisioned  for  a 
year,  he  put  into  the  Canaries  to  refit  and  then  sailed  west 
T,.     ,.  for  five  weeks  without  reaching  land.   The  crew 

The  dis-  ° 

covery  of  began  to  grumble  and  then  to  plot  against  him, 
"^^"^^  but  he  held  to  his  purpose  and  on  October  12, 
1492,  came  to  one  of  the  small  islands  of  the  West  Indies 
which  he  named  San  Salvador.  He  cruised  about  the  archi- 
pelago for  three  months  and  then  returned  in  triumph  to 
Spain.  Columbus  made  three  subsequent  voyages  to  the 
West  Indies  and  northeast  coast  of  South  America,  but  died 
in  the  belief  that  he  had  reached  Asiatic  waters.  Before  his 
death  other  mariners  had  followed  in  his  trail.  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  who  accompanied  some  of  these  expeditions,  was 
impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  South  American  coast  did  not 
correspond  at  all  to  the  latitudes  assigned  to  Cathay  in  the 
maps  and  geographies,  and  so  wrote  friends  a  letter  in  which 
he  proclaimed  it  at  least  as  a  "New  World."  This  letter  was 
published  and  his  name  became  associated  with  the  new 
continents,  which  both  in  the  south  and  the  north  were 
finally  named  ''America." 

Now  that  Spain  had  apparently  found  a  westward  route 
to  the  East,  it  became  imperative  for  the  Portuguese  to 
complete  their  circumnavigation  of  Africa  if  they  wished 


THE  ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  6ii 

to  be  the  first  to  establish  trade  with  India  and  the  Spice 
Islands.  In  July,  1497,  Vasco  da  Gama  left  Lis-  ^. 
bon  With  four  ships,  a  well-paid  and  well-trained  navigation 
crew,  provisions  for  three  years,  and  the  best  °^  ^^'^'^^ 
scientific  instruments  then  obtainable.  At  the  Cape  Verde 
Islands  he  left  the  coast  to  avoid  calms  and  adverse  winds 
and  currents  and  sailed  for  three  full  months  out  of  sight 
of  land.  This  was  not,  however,  so  bold  a  feat  as  the  first 
voyage  of  Columbus,  since  Vasco  knew  just  where  he  should 
strike  land  again.  He  rounded  the  Cape  in  November  and 
by  March,  1498,  reached  Mozambique,  where  Arabic  was 
spoken,  and  then  Mombasa,  where  he  secured  a  pilot  who 
conducted  him  across  the  Indian  Ocean  to  Calicut,  which 
he  reached  in  May.  In  August  he  started  back  and  arrived 
at  Lisbon  in  September,  1499,  with  only  half  of  his  ships 
and  one  third  of  his  men,  but  with  a  precious  cargo  of  gems 
and  spices.  This  meant  that  the  commercial  greatness  of 
Portugal  was  assured  for  the  next  century  and  that  the  day 
of  Venice  as  the  first  sea  power  of  Europe  was  over.  The 
Portuguese  proved  more  than  a  match  for  the  rival  Moham- 
medan traders  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  they  kept  secret 
their  routes  to  the  East  and  received  from  the  pope  the  ex- 
clusive right  to  make  conquests  and  to  convert  the  heathen 
there.  Portugal  could,  of  course,  greatly  undersell  Venice, 
which  obtained  its  Oriental  wares  through  the  Moham- 
medans. 

The  Spanish  discovery  of  a  new  world  and  the  Portu- 
guese renewal  of  contact  in  a  closer  way  with  the  old  world 
of  the  Orient  both  broadened  human  knowledge  stimulus  to 
and  quickened  the  imagination.  Geography  and  civilization 
astronomy  acquired  vast  stores  of  new  data  and  were  able 
to  correct  previous  misinformation.  Science  learned  of  new 
plants  and  new  animals,  which  were  sometimes  introduced 
into  Europe,  affecting  the  daily  life  of  the  average  man.  New 
races  and  unsuspected  stages  of  human  civilization  were  en- 
countered, although  not  at  first  scientifically  scrutinized  and 
appreciated.  New  fields  were  opened  to  economic,  maritime, 
and  colonial  enterprise.   Literature  profited  by  new  subject- 


6i2        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

matter  and  a  new  inspiration.  Even  more,  perhaps,  than 
the  crusades  the  voyages  of  discovery  aroused  the  spirit 
of  adventure  and  represented  energy  and  enterprise.  The 
Atlantic  was  now  destined  to  replace  the  Mediterranean  as 
the  chief  waterway  of  Europe,  and  the  states  bordering  on  it 
rose  successively  to  national  greatness  and  took  the  lead  as 
maritime  powers,  first  Portugal  and  Spain,  then  the  Dutch 
and  English.  These  changes  came  about  gradually  and  were 
largely  in  the  future,  but  they  give  us  further  reason  for 
closing  our  survey  of  the  Middle  Ages  about  the  year  1500. 
Vasco  da  Gama's  voyage  marked  the  beginning  of  that 
European  political  and  economic  exploitation  of  the  Far 
East  and  of  Africa  which  is  a  prominent  feature  of  modern 
history.  The  voyage  of  Columbus  is  not  only  one  of  the 
boundary  stones  between  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern 
times;  it  also  reminds  us  that  American  history  opens  as 
medieval  history  closes. 


THE  ITALIAN   RENAISSANCE  613 


EXERCISES  AND   READINGS 

The  Fine  Arts. 

Symonds,  Short  History  of  the  Renaissance,  chap,  xii,  pp.  197-240. 

Vasari. 

The  Life  by  Vasari  of  any  artist  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  chapter.  A 
recent  English  edition  of  Vasari  is  that  of  1907  in  four  volumes  by 
Blashfield  and  Hopkins. 
Berenson,  The  Study  and  Criticism  of  Italian  Art,  pp.  1-12;  "Vasari  in 
the  Light  of  Recent  Publications." 

Brunelleschi's  Dome. 

Sturgis  and  Frothingham,  A  History  of  Architecture,  vol.  iv,  pp.  94-97. 

Works  of  Art. 

The  reader  should  familiarize  himself  with  some  of  the  reproductions  of 
the  masterpieces  of  the  Renaissance  to  be  found  in  the  numerous  illus- 
trated histories  of  art  and  in  special  studies  on  individual  artists. 

Cellini. 

The  Life  of  BenvemUo  Cellini,  written  by  Himself.  The  reader  may  dip  for 
himself  into  one  of  the  English  translations  of  this  book,  or  read  the 
selections  from  it  in  Whitcomb,  A  Literary  Source  Book  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  pp.  110-18,  and  Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History, 
vol.  I,  pp.  531-34- 

The  Age  of  Discovery. 

Cambridge  Modern  History,  vol.  i,  chap,  i,  pp.  7-36,  by  E.  J.  Payne. 

Portuguese  Voyages. 

Cheyney,  European  Background  of  American  History,  chap,  iv,  pp.  60- 

78,  "Pioneer  Work  of  Portugal." 
K.  G.  Jayne,  Vasco  da  Gama,  and  his  Successors  (London,  1910);  pp.  i- 
32,  "The  Early  Discoveries,  c.  14 15-1497";  pp.  33-59,  "Vasco  da 
Gama's  First  Voyage." 

Columbus. 

I    E.  G.  Bourne,  Spain  in  America,  chaps,  ii-iv,  pp.  8-53.  Note  especially 
the  detailed  map  of  his  voyages  at  pp.  34-35. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

THE  RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  AND  OF  THE  MIDDLE  CLASS 

In  this  closing  chapter  we  have  to  note  political  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  and  the  course  of  events  in  the  leading 
Introductory  Countries  of  western  Europe  during  the  last  half 
outline  ^f  ^j^g  fifteenth  century  and  the  first  few  years  of 

the  sixteenth.  This  time  was  one  of  transition  from  the 
later  Middle  Ages  to  what  is  known  as  modern  history.  Its 
chief  general  features  will  prove  to  be  the  growth  of  ab- 
solute monarchies,  the  passing  of  the  medieval  nobility  and 
the  rise  of  a  prosperous  middle  class,  and  the  prominence  of 
international  relations  and  European  diplomacy.  The  most 
striking  particular  changes  are  the  progress  of  the  new  Bur- 
gundian  State,  the  increasing  fortune  of  the  House  of  Haps- 
burg,  the  sudden  rise  of  Spain  and  Portugal  to  national 
greatness  owing  in  part  to  the  voyages  of  discovery.  Other 
important  events  were  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  in  England, 
the  reign  of  the  crafty  Louis  XI  in  France,  and  the  French 
invasions  of  Italy.  We  shall  now  take  up  the  countries  of 
western  Europe  in  the  following  order,  Germany,  Burgundy, 
Switzerland,  France,  England,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  and 
then  close  with  the  accession  of  Charles  V. 

The  reign  of  the  Hapsburg  emperor,  Frederick  HI  (1440- 
1493),  has  been  well  epitomized  as  "the  longest  and  dullest 
^    J   .  ,         of  all   German   history.    The  most  careful   in- 

r  rederick 

III  of  spection  can  reveal  only  a  few  things  that  are 

Germany  ^orth  remembering."  Frederick  was  slow,  poor, 
and  powerless.  For  the  most  part  he  merely  watched  the 
course  of  events,  consoling  himself  with  gardening  and 
astrology,  and  mumbling  his  favorite  maxim,  ''  Rerum  ir- 
reciiperahilium  summa  felicitas  oblivio''  (What  can't  be 
helped  had  best  be  forgot),  and  the  acrostic  of  words  be- 
ginning with  the  five  vowels,  ''Austrice  est  imperare  orbi 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  '  615 

universo,*'  or,  '^Alles  Erdreich  ist  Osterreich  unterthan"  (All 
earth  is  ours  ultimately).  But  for  the  time  being  both  the 
Bohemians  and  the  Hungarians,  when  their  boy  king, 
Ladislas,  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  died  in  1457,  disre- 
garded the  claims  of  Frederick  III  and  gave  a  passing  ex- 
hibition of  national  feeling  by  electing  the  native  kings, 
George  of  Podiebrad  (1458-1471)  and  Matthias  Corvinus 
(1458-1490). 

A  more  influential  figure  in  European  politics  than  the 
slow-moving  Frederick  was  his  brilliant,  cultured,  and 
knightly  son,  Maximilian  (1493-1519).    He  had         . 

fill  it»i«      ivisxirniii3.ri  i 

already  taken  the  government  largely  mto  his 
own  hands  during  his  father's  last  years,  and  had  been 
elected  King  of  the  Romans  in  i486,  which  assured  him  the 
imperial  office  upon  his  father's  death.  Of  his  important 
marriage  with  the  Burgundian  heiress  we  shall  presently 
speak.  In  1491,  by  the  Treaty  of  Pressburg,  he  arranged 
with  Ladislas  II,  who  was  then  King  of  both  Bohemia  and 
Hungary,  that  in  case  the  descendants  of  Ladislas  died  out, 
those  countries  should  pass  to  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 
This  actually  happened  in  1526,  and  ever  since  then  Aus- 
tria, Bohemia,  and  Hungary  have  been  ruled  together  by 
the  Hapsburgs. 

During  the  reign  of  Sigismund,  early  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, some  futile  efforts  had  been  made  by  the  German  Diet 
to  reform  the  imperial  constitution  and  to  secure  German 
a  standing  army  by  regular  taxation.  Toward  government 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Frederick  III  the  free  imperial  cities 
began  to  send  representatives  to  the  Diet.  There  were  fre- 
quent meetings  of  this  assembly  under  Maximilian  who 
needed  grants  of  money  for  his  ambitious  foreign  projects. 
He  also  established  a  central  court  of  justice  and  tried  to 
group  the  various  states  of  the  Empire  together  in  adminis- 
trative "circles."  But  these  belated  symptoms  of  common 
action  and  of  a  national  German  feeling  were  accompanied 
by  the  completion  in  the  chief  local  principalities  of  the 
transition  from  feudalism  to  centralized  administration 
which  had  been  going  on  since  the  twelfth  century.   Such 


6i6       THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

regions  as  Bavaria,  Saxony,  and  Brandenburg  were  now 
practically  independent  territorial  states.  The  study  "of 
Roman  law,  introduced  into  the  German  universities  about 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  is  thought  to  have  con- 
tributed considerably  to  the  power  of  the  princes  at  the 
head  of  such  states. 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  stated  that  the  German  cities 
reached  the  height  of  their  prosperity  only  about  the  year 
German  1 500.    By   that   time    silver  and   copper   were 

anTsocial  mined  extensively  in  Hungary,  Bohemia,  the 
conditions  Tyrol,  and  Germany  proper.  Trade  also  flour- 
ished and  companies  with  large  capital  were  formed. 
These  tended  to  establish  monopolies  and  make  things  hard 
for  the  small  merchant  and  the  consumer.  But  an  especially 
discontented  class  were  the  peasants  who  complained  that 
their  lords  were  requiring  increased  rents  and  services 
of  them  and  were  encroaching  upon  their  common  lands. 
From  1476  on  local  uprisings  against  the  nobles  and  clergy 
were  frequent  in  southern  Germany.  A  sort  of  Christian 
socialism  became  popular  among  the  peasants  who  based 
their  demands  upon  the  Bible  and  bore  banners  with  pious 
inscriptions.  But  the  great  Peasants'  Revolt  of  1525  lies 
beyond  the  limits  of  our  period. 

The  origin  of  the  House  of  Burgundy  in  the  fourteenth 
century  and  its  acquisition  of  both  the  Duchy  and  Free 
Growth  of  County  of  Burgundy,  of  Flanders  and  Artois,  of 
dbn^"o7se^'  Nevers  and  Rethel,  and  of  other  lands  along  the 
sions  northeastern  frontier  of  the  Kingdom  of  France 

during  the  Hundred  Years  War,  have  been  already  men- 
tioned. In  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  it  also  ac- 
quired the  Duchy  of  Luxemburg  and  numerous  principalities 
in  the  Netherlands,  such  as  the  Duchies  of  Brabant  and 
Limburg,  and  the  Counties  of  Hainault,  Holland,  and  Zee- 
land.  By  the  time  of  Charles  the  Bold  (1467-1477),  there- 
fore, his  possessions  included  most  of  modern  Belgium  and 
the  Netherlands,  a  considerable  slice  of  eastern  France,  and 
a  little  of  western  Germany.  In  other  words,  he  threatened 
to  create  an  important  third  state  between  the  French 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  617 

monarchy  and  Germany  with  a  territory  extending  from 
the  North  Sea  to  the  Alps. 

The  chief  strength  and  value  of  the  Burgundian  posses- 
sions lay  not  in  the  Burgundies  proper,  which  were  thinly 
populated  and  poor  economically,  but  in  the  rich  ^j^  . 
and  populous  cities  of  the  Low  Countries.  Before  of  the 
the  cities  developed  the  peasants  of  the  Low  Netherlands 
Countries  had  been  freer  than  in  most  places  in  the  early 
Middle  Ages,  because  the  land  was  so  difficult  to  reclaim 
from  swamp  and  sea  that  great  estates  of  lords  were  not 
established  there,  but  the  land  was  cultivated  largely  by 
hardy  and  thrifty  individual  freemen.  Many  of  them  be- 
came sailors,  however,  and  in  time  trade  developed.  As  the 
land  thus  grew  more  prosperous,  feudal  jurisdictions  and 
lordships  also  grew  up.  But  the  feudal  states  and  lords, 
except  for  the  great  County  of  Flanders,  were  petty  before 
the  Burgundian  period.  And  as  towns  came  into  existence 
they  bought  communal  privileges  from  their  lords  and  then 
fought  to  keep  them. 

But  now  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  endeavored  to  build  up 
a  strong  centralized  monarchy  with  unified  financial  and 
judicial  systems.  This  led  them  to  disregard  and  The  Burgun- 
ride  roughshod  over  the  particular  privileges  and  ^|jj"  overn- 
the  diversities  of  custom  cherished  by  each  town  ment 
and  locality.  They  also  demanded  large  grants  of  money 
from  the  cities  in  order  to  carry  out  their  dynastic  and  for- 
eign ambitions.  Although  Charles  the  Bold  was  more  eco- 
nomical and  less  given  to  pleasure  and  festivities  than  his 
father,  his  court  was  the  most  splendid  in  Europe  and  rich 
both  in  treasure  and  culture.  He  presided  at  council  in  per- 
son; he  always  dined  in  state  in  the  presence  of  the  entire 
court;  sixteen  equerries  were  in  constant  attendance  upon 
him  during  the  day  and  saw  him  safe  to  bed  at  night.  Pre- 
cious jewels  and  costly  plate  were  abundant,  and  the  Order 
of  the  Golden  Fleece  was  an  appropriate  name  for  the 
elite  of  the  Burgundian  knighthood.  But  all  this  show  had 
the  purpose  behind  it  of  impressing  the  world  with  the 
wealth  and  power  of  the  Burgundian  House. 


6i8        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Beneath  the  pomp  Charles  was  a  hard-working  executive 
and  methodical  man  of  business.  Born  in  1433,  he  was 
Charles  elected  a  knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece  when  only 

the  Bold  twenty  days  old,  two  years  before  he  was  able  to 
ride  horseback  on  a  wooden  steed  constructed  for  him  by  a 
saddler  of  Brussels.  He  was  betrothed  at  six,  and  often  as 
a  mere  child,  when  his  father  happened  to  be  busy  elsewhere, 
had  been  dispatched  to  this  or  that  Flemish  town  to  ask  for 
a  money  grant.  In  the  last  two  or  three  years  of  the  life  of 
Philip  the  Good,  Charles  was  already  the  real  head  of  the 
Burgundian  State.  He  was  frank,  just,  and  impartial,  but 
stern  and  severe  to  wrongdoers  or  to  any  of  his  subjects  who 
resisted  his  commands  and  power.  His  epithet,  the  "Bold " 
or  "Rash,"  indicates  his  impetuosity  and  military  daring. 
He  was  somewhat  lacking  in  tact  and  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  and  was  too  inclined  to  speak  out  his  mind. 

Charles  made  an  effort  to  consolidate  his  scattered  pos- 
sessions into  a  compact  and  independent  kingdom,  but  met 
His  relations  with  many  obstacles.  In  the  Low  Countries  re- 
Netherlands  volts  in  the  cities  of  Ghent,  Dinant,  and  Liege 
and  England  distracted  him  for  a  time.  Liege,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  over  120,000  and  a  very  democratic  suffrage,  was  an 
especially  hard  nut  to  crack.  There  the  gilds  of  artisans  had 
an  equal  voice  with  the  richer  organizations,  and  apprentices 
who  were  over  fifteen  years  of  age  could  vote  in  the  annual 
city  elections.  The  town  lay  in  an  ecclesiastical  principality 
and  in  bygone  days  had  made  its  bishop  no  end  of  trouble. 
Now  that  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  controlled  the  appoint- 
ment of  its  bishop,  it  resisted  them.  Charles,  however, 
crushed  its  revolt.  He  also  succeeded  in  adding  another 
province  in  the  Netherlands,  Guelders,  to  his  possessions. 
Charles  protected  himself  from  the  side  of  England  by  marry- 
ing Margaret  of  York,  the  sister  of  Edward  IV,  Louis  XI  of 
France,  who  was  Charles's  chief  enemy,  therefore  had  to 
content  himself  with  an  alliance  with  the  losing  Lancastrian 
side  in  England. 

Charles  and  Louis  from  the  beginnings  of  their  reigns  were 
either  openly  at  war  or  secretly  plotting  against  each  other. 


Loiigituae     West         4         froii.      Greenwich 


620        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Their  personalities  were  almost  diametrically  opposed, 
„,  ,       and  Louis  had  made  the  mistake  of  affronting 

Bold  and        Charles  before  the  latter  came  into  power.  The 
°"'^ '  chief  manifest  bone  of  contention  between  them 

was  some  towns  along  their  frontier,  the  river  Somme,  but 
in  general  each  stood  in  the  way  of  the  other's  territorial 
expansion.  At  this  time  the  three  great  provinces  of  Lor- 
raine, Savoy,  and  Provence  were  all  in  weak  hands  and  only 
waiting  for  some  strong  monarch  to  come  and  take  them.  At 
this  time,  too,  Charles  and  Louis  were  the  two  strongest 
princes  on  the  Continent.  Could  Charles  have  annexed  these 
three  districts,  his  territories  would  have  extended  from  the 
North  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean  and  have  shut  oflf  France 
from  any  further  eastward  expansion.  Louis  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  being  the  older  of  the  two  men,  and  before  he 
became  king  had  as  dauphin  spent  ten  years  in  Dauphine, 
laying  the  foundations  of  his  future  treaties  with  the  Swiss 
and  Milan  and  of  his  future  acquisition  of  Savoy  and  Pro- 
vence. These  provinces  might,  however,  have  been  willed  to 
Charles  rather  than  to  Louis  had  the  Burgundian  not  died 
too  soon,  leaving  his  adversary  to  reap  the  harvest. 

The  territory  which  it  was  most  essential  for  Charles  to 
secure,  however,  was  Lorraine,  since  It  intervened  between 
Charles's  re-  the  two  Burgundies  and  his  possessions  in  Lux- 
lations  with  emburg  and  the  Low  Countries.  When  in  1473 
Frederick  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  died  childless,  Charles  ar- 
^^^  ranged  by  treaty  that  the  new  incumbent  should 

be  practically  his  vassal,  and  proceeded  to  fill  up  Lorraine 
with  his  own  garrisons.  In  the  same  year  he  conferred  at 
Treves  for  eight  weeks  with  Frederick  III  —  since  many  of 
the  Burgundian  possessions  were  nominally  fiefs  of  the  Em- 
pire —  over  the  question  of  Frederick's  making  Charles  a 
king  and  marrying  his  son  Maximilian  to  Charles's  daughter 
Mary.  Once  before,  it  will  be  remembered,  there  had  been 
a  Kingdom  of  Burgundy  which  in  1032  had  lost  its  inde- 
pendence and  become  incorporated  in  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire.  But  Frederick  sneaked  off  down  the  Moselle  River 
early  one  morning  without  having  agreed  to  raise  Bur- 


RISE   OF  ABSOLUTISM  621 

gundy  to  the  status  of  a  kingdom.  Charles  then  wasted  a 
year  in  a  war  on  the  Rhine  in  alUance  with  the  Archbishop 
of  Cologne,  when  he  should  have  been  crushing  more  dan- 
gerous enemies  of  his  own. 

Sigismund  of  Hapsburg,  Archduke  of  Austria  and  Count 
of  the  Tyrol,  had  mortgaged  his  somewhat  uncertain  feudal 
rights  in  Alsace  and  the  Black  Forest  to  Charles,  p,  . 
an  action  which  aroused  the  fears  of  the  Rhine  defeated 
cities  and  of  the  Swiss.  The  Swiss  had  previously  ^  ^  ^^  ^^^^ 
been  at  war  with  Sigismund,  who  was  their  ancestral  enemy, 
but  now  both  of  them  combined  with  Louis  XI  in  a  triple 
alliance  against  Charles.  The  Swiss  helped  Sigismund  to 
recover  his  mortgaged  possessions,  and  then,  encouraged  by 
Louis  XI,  they  declared  war  on  Charles.  He,  however,  in- 
duced his  ally  Edward  IV  to  invade  France  in  1475  and 
distract  Louis's  attention.  Meanwhile  Charles  conquered 
Lorraine,  whose  young  duke  had  rebelled  against  his  inter- 
ference, became  himself  its  duke,  and  planned  to  make  it 
the  center  of  his  dominions.  But  in  1476  he  was  defeated 
by  the  Swiss  at  Granson  and  Morat  and  lost  Lorraine ;  the 
next  year  came  his  final  defeat  and  death  at  Nancy.  He  left 
no  son  to  try  to  carry  out  his  plans,  but  his  daughter  Mary 
married  Maximilian  within  a  year,  thereby  still  holding 
most  of  the  Burgundian  possessions  together  and  greatly 
increasing  the  family  possessions  of  the  House  of  Haps- 
burg. Bones  of  the  Burgundian  dead  were  still  to  be  seen 
on  the  battlefield  of  Morat  when  Lord  Byron  visited  it  in 
1816,  although  it  was  the  custom  of  every  Burgundian  who 
passed  that  way  to  remove  a  bone  to  his  native  land,  while 
the  Swiss  postillions  sold  them  for  knife  handles.  Byron 
himself  carried  away  enough  to  make  "  a  quarter  of  a  hero," 
and  wrote  his  lines  on  "the  patriotic  field,"  .  .  . 

"Won  by  the  unambitious  heart  and  hand 
Of  a  proud,  brotherly,  and  civic  band." 

The  Swiss  at  this  period  form  an  exception  to  the  general 
rule  of  the  increase  of  absolute  monarchy  in  Europe,  but 
fit  in  well  enough  with  the  rise  of  the  middle  class.  After  they 
had  further  raised  their  military  reputation  by  defeating 


622        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Charles  the  Bold  so  decisively,  they  became  more  indepen- 
-,,    c  •  dent  than  ever.   Whereas  earlier  their  argument 

The  Swiss  ° 

Confedera-  against  Hapsburg  rule  had  been  that  they  were 
amenable  to  the  emperor  alone,  now  they  began 
to  refuse  to  be  bound  by  anything  that  the  imperial  govern- 
ment did  or  wished  them  to  do.  They  would  neither  pay 
taxes  to  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  nor  abide  by  the  decisions 
of  an  imperial  court.  The  result  was  a  brief  war  in  1499, 
after  which  the  Swiss  were  confirmed  in  their  ancient  rights 
and  conquests,  and  remained  henceforth  practically  an  in- 
dependent state  quite  severed  from  the  Empire,  although 
their  formal  separation  and  national  independence  did  not 
come  until  1648.  Also  in  1499  their  territory  had  not  yet 
attained  the  extent  of  modern  Switzerland;  there  were 
further  additions  to  be  made  especially  upon  the  French 
and  Italian  sides. 

In  France  as  a  result  of  the  Hundred  Years  War  the  nobles 
and  clergy  lost  a  deal  of  their  wealth,  especially  of  their 
The  bour-  land.  In  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  a  consider- 
geoisie  in        ^blc  middle  class  in  the  country  made  up  of  the 

fifteenth-  r  ,,  ,     r  r  i 

century  owners  oi  small  estates  and  01  tenant  larmers  who 

France  leased  land  for  periods  of  a  dozen  or  fifteen  years. 

In  the  Estates  General  of  1484  even  peasants  participated  in 
the  local  elections  of  representatives  of  the  third  estate.  The 
bourgeoisie  of  the  towns  have  become  richer  and  more  in- 
fluential than  ever,  especially  as  the  Church  has  decayed 
and  the  feudal  nobility  has  lost  its  military  prestige  through 
such  defeats  as  those  of  Crecy  and  Agincourt.  A  townsman 
like  Jacques  Coeur,  the  silversmith  of  Bourges,  where  may 
still  be  seen  his  fine  Gothic  residence  incorporating  two 
Roman  towers  in  its  back  wall,  possessed  more  real  power 
than  any  noble  of  the  court  of  Charles  VII,  and  was  as  im- 
portant to  the  French  monarchy  as  the  Bank  of  England  or 
the  Morgans  are  to  a  modern  government.  He  became,  in- 
deed, such  a  power  behind  the  throne  that  he  made  enemies 
at  court  who  procured  his  condemnation,  but  the  death 
sentence  was  commuted  to  banishment  at  the  intercession 
of  the  pope,  and  Jacques  set  out  on  a  crusade  against  the 


RISE   OF  ABSOLUTISM  623 

Turks.  Shrewd  Louis  XI,  the  son  of  Charles  VII,  cared 
nothing  for  courtiers  and  pomp.  He  preferred  to  see  his 
nobility  stowed  safely  away  in  dungeons.  But  he  liked  to 
stop  at  the  houses  of  substantial  citizens,  take  dinner  with 
them,  and  learn  popular  opinion.  His  dress  and  his  manners 
were  plebeian ;  he  chose  his  assistants  regardless  of  rank ;  and 
he  granted  many  privileges  to  the  cities,  although  he  also 
taxed  them  heavily. 

The  monarch  grew  more  powerful  as  the  middle  class  be- 
came more  prominent.  This  was  natural  since  the  feudal 
lords  had  been  a  check  upon  them  both.  Al-  Military  and 
though  Charles  VII  at  first  had  been  such  an  financial 

....  ,     ,         .     .  p  .  power  gained 

unpromismg  kmg  and  the  victim  of  corrupt  fav-  by  Charles 
orites,  as  his  reign  progressed  he  procured  better  ^^^ 
advisers  and  was  successful  not  only  in  expelling  the  Eng- 
lish, but  also  in  augmenting  permanently  the  power  of  the 
Crown.  The  Estates  General  met  only  once  during  his  reign 
and  then  agreed  to  a  perpetual  annual  direct  tax,  or  taille, 
of  1,200,000  livres  for  the  support  of  a  standing  army. 
Nobles,  clergy,  most  of  the  royal  officials  and  soldiers,  and 
the  citizens  of  self-governing  towns  were  exempted  from  the 
taille,  which  thus  fell  chiefly  upon  the  peasants.  With  this 
permanent  grant  the  king  was  able  to  have  at  his  beck  a 
permanent  army,  regularly  paid  and  hence  well  disciplined 
and  loyal.  He  needed  no  longer  to  appeal  to  individual 
captains  to  raise  bands  of  mercenaries,  and  then  have  diffi- 
culty in  paying  them  or  in  disbanding  them  when  the  war 
was  over.  Indeed,  henceforth  no  one  but  the  king  and  his 
royal  officials  could  raise  and  maintain  troops.  The  new 
army  consisted  of  fifteen  companies  of  knights  or  heavy- 
armed  cavalry  with  accompanying  men-at-arms  and  pages, 
and  of  free  archers,  of  whom  one  was  to  be  supplied  by  each 
of  the  sixteen  thousand  parishes  in  France,  and  of  the  ar- 
tillery. The  native  bowmen  did  not  prove  a  great  success, 
however,  and  Louis  XI  relied  in  their  place  for  infantry 
largely  upon  hired  Swiss  or  Scotch  soldiers. 

Back  in  1440,  as  dauphin,  Louis  had  participated  in  a 
conspiracy  of  the  feudal  nobility  against  his  father,  Charles 


624        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

VII.  Later  he  went  off  to  his  appanage  of  Dauphine,  where 
he  ruled  for  some  ten  years  without  regard  to  his  father, 
against  whose  wishes,  too,  he  married  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  Finally  he  fled  to  the 
Burgundian  court  of  Philip  the  Good  and  came  very  near 
being  disinherited  by  his  angry  parent.  He  was  already 
thirty-eight  years  old  when  he  became  King  of  France,  full 
of  political  experience,  of  knowledge  and  mistrust  of  men, 
trained  both  in  plausible  talk  and  in  cunning  scheming,  con- 
fident in  his  own  cleverness  and  ability  to  outwit  others. 
Able  as  he  was  intellectually,  he  was  very  superstitious  in 
his  religion,  and  is  well  known  for  his  wooden  beads,  the 
leaden  image  of  the  Virgin  on  his  disreputable  hat,  and  for 
the  fact  that  he  could  be  depended  upon  to  keep  his  word 
only  when  he  had  sworn  by  one  particular  saint.  His  face 
and  figure  were  as  unattractive  as  were  his  cheap  clothes, 
and  there  was  something  cruel  and  malicious  and  stealthy 
about  him.  His  great  merit  as  king  was  that  he  attended  to 
everything  himself.  He  traveled  about  his  realm  and  dined 
with  burghers  to  learn  public  opinion ;  he  was  always  seek- 
ing information,  he  even  put  his  person  in  peril  in  crises 
for  the  sake  of  a  personal  interview  with  some  adversary; 
and  in  his  spider's  webs  at  Plessis  and  Loches  he  made 
periodical  visits  to  the  remotest  dungeons  to  make  sure  that 
the  prisoners  were  still  there  —  and  to  leer  at  them. 

Since  Louis  had  opposed  the  Crown  for  twenty  years  be- 
fore he  became  king,  the  great  lords  with  whom  he  had  con- 
„,    J  spired  in  the  past,  and  especially  the  Duke  of 

of  Public        Burgundy  with  whom  he  had  found  a  refuge, 
^  ^^^  looked  for  a  restoration  of  their  influence  and 

power  at  his  accession.  The  holders  of  great  fiefs  in  France 
at  this  time  were  for  the  most  part  descended  from  younger 
sons  of  the  royal  family,  to  whom  since  the  thirteenth  century 
the  kings  had  been  granting  appanages,  thereby  nullifying 
many  of  the  territorial  gains  of  the  monarchy  and  creating 
a  new  feudal  nobility.  These  dukes  and  counts  soon  dis- 
covered that  the  rule  of  Louis  was  even  less  to  their  liking 
than  that  of  Charles  VII,  and  in  1465  they  formed  the 


RISE   OF  ABSOLUTISM  625 

League  of  the  Public  Welfare  against  him.  Leading  spirits 
in  this  were  his  own  brother  Charles  who  had  so  nearly  sup- 
planted him  on  the  throne,  Charles  the  Bold  who  was  al- 
ready the  real  ruler  in  Burgundy  in  place  of  his  senile  father, 
the  Duke  of  Brittany,  the  Houses  of  Orleans,  Anjou,  Alen- 
gon,  and  Bourbon,  who  were  all  offshoots  of  the  royal 
family,  the  Dukes  of  Lorraine  and  Nemours,  and  the  Counts 
of  Armagnac  and  Saint- Pol.  The  league  was  victorious  over 
the  king  chiefly  because  of  a  victory  won  by  Charles  the 
Bold  at  Montlhery,  and  Louis  had  to  cede  away  territories 
and  rights  of  the  Crown  to  the  individual  members.  For  the 
public  welfare  they  accomplished  little  except  to  appoint 
thirty-six  reformers  to  remedy  abuses  In  Church  and  State 
and  to  protect  the  people  from  oppression. 

Louis,  however,  soon  regained  complete  control  of  the 
central  government,  and  before  his  reign  was  over  he 
had  encompassed  the  death  or  imprisonment  of  Royal  tri- 
nearly  every  member  of  the  League  of  Public  t^rkoHal 
Welfare,  and  had  not  only  recovered  the  lands  expansion 
alienated  in  1465,  but  had  acquired  much  additional  terri- 
tory. In  1466  he  took  advantage  of  a  quarrel  between  his 
brother  and  the  Duke  of  Brittany  to  win  Normandy  back 
from  both  of  them.  When  Louis  told  a  meeting  of  the 
Estates  General  In  1468  that  he  intended  to  keep  Normandy 
as  a  part  of  the  royal  domain,  they  agreed  with  him  that 
the  custom  of  granting  appanages  was  a  bad  one.  Indeed, 
the  people  seem  to  have  felt  little  sympathy  with  the  strug- 
gles of  the  nobles  against  Louis.  But  Charles  the  Bold, 
when  he  had  Louis  In  his  power  at  Peronne,  forced  the  king 
to  recompense  his  brother  for  the  loss  of  Normandy  by  a 
grant  of  Champagne  and  Brie.  Louis  had  come  to  Peronne 
hoping  to  get  the  better  of  Charles  the  Bold  in  a  personal 
interview,  and  little  thinking  that  Charles  had  learned  of 
certain  treacherous  intrigues  of  his  against  him.  The  result 
was  that  Charles  kept  Louis  a  virtual  prisoner  until  he  had 
agreed  to  his  demands.  But  Louis  never  let  any  one  go 
whom  he  once  had  In  his  power,  not  even  when  he  had 
given  him  a  safe-conduct.  He  soon  hoodwinked  his  brother 


626        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

into  accepting  Guienne  in  place  of  Champagne  and  thus 
separated  him  by  the  breadth  of  France  from  his  Burgundian 
ally.  This  brother  had  previously  exchanged  the  Duchy  of 
Berri  for  Normandy,  so  that  it  is  evident  that  he  had  no 
particular  attachment  to  any  one  locality,  nor  had  any 
locality  much  love  for  him.  In  1472  he  died  so  opportunely 
for  the  schemes  of  Louis  that  the  king  was  suspected  of 
having  poisoned  him.  The  next  year  Louis  caught  and  Im- 
prisoned Armagnac;  the  year  following,  Alengon.  In  1475 
Saint- Pol,  who  had  played  fast  and  loose  with  both  Bur- 
gundy and  France,  was  captured  by  Charles  the  Bold,  who 
annexed  his  lands,  but  gave  Louis  the  pleasure  of  executing 
him.  In  1477  Nemours  was  beheaded  and  Louis's  numer- 
ous schemes  against  Charles  the  Bold  at  last  bore  fruit  in 
the  latter's  defeat  and  death  at  the  hands  of  the  Swiss. 
Louis  then  attempted  to  annex  various  Burgundian  prov- 
inces, but  Maximilian  had  married  Charles's  daughter  and 
fought  for  her  heritage,  so  that  at  Louis's  death  only  the 
Duchy  of  Burgundy  and  the  Somme  towns  were  actually  in 
his  possession,  although  other  territories  were  still  in  dis- 
pute. Louis  also  spirited  Savoy  away  from  the  heirs  of  his 
feeble-minded  father-in-law.  Rene  of  Anjou  (1409-1480), 
titular  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily  and  Duke  of  Anjou  and 
Maine,  after  many  misfortunes  and  the  loss  of  his  other 
possessions,  had  retired  in  1473  to  his  County  of  Provence 
and  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  art  and  literature. 
When  he  died  In  1480  and  his  nephew,  Charles  of  Maine, 
died  in  1481,  Maine  and  Anjou  reverted  to  the  Crown,  while 
Provence  for  the  first  time  in  its  history  was  incorporated  in 
the  Kingdom  of  France.  Except  for  Brittany,  Artols,  and  the 
County  of  Burgundy,  France  had  now  very  nearly  reached 
its  modern  boundaries,  and  in  1491  the  son  of  Louis,  Charles 
VIII,  added  Brittany  by  marrying  its  heiress.  Artols  and 
the  County  of  Burgundy,  however,  he  ceded  to  Maximilian 
to  compensate  him  for  having  nullified  Maximilian's  previ- 
ous marriage  by  proxy  with  the  same  heiress,  and  for  other 
reasons.   Savoy  also  regained  its  independence. 

These  very  great  acquisitions  of  territory  under  Charles 


RISE   OF  ABSOLUTISM  627 

VII  from  England  and  under  Louis  XI  from  the  princely 
nobility  and  the  dynasties  on  the  frontiers  could  Survival  of 
not,  however,  be  at  once  absorbed  into  a  homo-  local  gov- 
geneous  whole  with  the  rest  of  the  royal  domain,  ^"^"^^"^ 
especially  since  the  royal  domain  itself  was  really  not  yet 
homogeneous,  but  marked  by  the  existence  of  local  privi- 
leges and  discrepancies.  Like  many  of  his  predecessors, 
Louis  XI  followed  the  policy  of  "  Divide  and  rule."  He  was 
no  more  inclined  than  had  been  his  father  to  call  the  Estates 
General  except  in  time  of  need,  and  preferred  to  deal  with 
the  numerous  provincial  assemblies  of  France.  Like  his 
father,  too,  he  created  or  sanctioned  local  parlements  in  his 
newly  acquired  territories  —  high  courts  of  justice  practi- 
cally independent  of  the  Parlement  of  Paris.  In  short,  the 
king  was  still  the  chief  bond  of  political  union  and  France 
still  lacked  a  national  law.  In  the  Estates  General  of 
1484,  summoned  after  the  death  of  Louis  XI  to  decide  the 
membership  of  the  council  of  regency,  voting  was  not  by 
estates,  but  by  six  regions,  "France,"  Normandy,  Bur- 
gundy, Aquitaine,  Languedoc,  and  Provence. 

In  contrast  to  the  increasing  power  of  the  Crown  in 
France  under  Charles  VII,  in  England  during  the  last  years 
of  the  Hundred  Years  War  the  central  govern-  England  at 
ment  had  been  growing  weaker  and  weaker.  *}jg  Humired 
Henry  VI  was  a  feeble,  though  well-meaning.  Years  War 
monarch;  there  was  much  disorder  through  the  land;  and 
Parliament,  which  had  acquired  so  much  authority  under 
the  Lancastrians,  proved  unable  to  cope  with  the  situation 
alone  without  the  aid  of  a  strong  executive.  Great  lords 
kept  armed  bands  of  retainers,  and  seized  property  which 
did  not  belong  to  them,  and  did  violence  to  their  enemies; 
and  intimidated  sheriffs  and  juries  if  an  attempt  was  made 
to  bring  them  to  justice.  They  also  controlled  the  elections 
of  members  to  Parliament.  With  the  close  of  the  war  in 
France  a  disorderly  element  of  adventurers,  mercenaries, 
and  brigands  had  returned  to  England ;  and  discontent  with 
the  outcome  of  the  war  had  weakened  the  hold  of  the  king 
on  his  people.   As  in  France,  the  greatest  nobles  were  con- 


628        THE   HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

nected  with  the  royal  family.  Edward  III  had  married  his 
younger  sons  to  English  heiresses  and  thus  some  estates 
of  great  size  had  been  brought  together.  The  two  leading 
houses  in  the  realm  were  the  Lancastrians,  who  had  held  the 
throne  thus  far  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  Yorkists, 
who  now  had  a  better  hereditary  claim  to  the  throne  be- 
cause they  were  descended  from  the  second  as  well  as  the 
fifth  son  of  Edward  III,  whereas  the  Lancastrians  were  de- 
scendants of  his  fourth  son,  John  of  Gaunt. 

Henry  VI  was  as  little  able  to  control  his  Lancastrian 
kinsmen,  the  Somersets  and  the  Beauforts,  as  he  was  to 
The  Wars  of  ^^^^rain  the  Yorkist  Party.  In  1455  broke  out  a 
the  Roses,  series  of  battles,  raids,  border  fights,  feuds,  and 
1455  14  5  murders  between  these  two  parties  and  also  be- 
tween lesser  rival  nobles  in  various  parts  of  the  land.  These 
are  collectively  known  as  the  "Wars  of  the  Roses,"  but 
while  the  white  rose  was  the  emblem  of  the  Yorkists,  the 
red  rose  was  not  worn  until  the  very  last  battle  at  Bosworth 
Field  in  1485  by  Henry  Tudor.  The  chief  central  thread  of 
interest  was  the  struggle  for  the  throne.  Henry  VI  lost  it 
in  1461  to  Edward  IV,  previously  the  Duke  of  York.  He 
in  turn  was  forced  to  flee  to  Bruges  in  1470  by  a  hostile 
combination  of  the  nobility  under  the  lead  of  the  Earl  of 
Warwick,  known  as  the  "King-Maker,"  and  who  restored 
Henry  VI  to  the  throne.  Edward,  however,  returned  in 
147 1  and  slew  most  of  his  enemies,  including  poor  old  Henry 
and  his  youthful  son.  Edward  IV  had  offended  most  of  his 
own  family  by  marrying  a  nobody  and  elevating  her  rela- 
tives to  the  peerage.  When  he  died,  his  brother  Richard 
executed  several  of  the  queen's  kinsmen,  seized  the  throne 
for  himself,  and  later  murdered  Edward's  two  innocent 
boys.  But  Richard  in  his  turn  had  to  face  hostile  combina- 
tions of  what  was  left  of  the  nobility,  and  after  two  years 
on  the  throne  lost  his  life  and  crown  to  Henry  Tudor, 
Earl  of  Richmond,  who  could  connect  his  descent  in  a 
very  indirect  way  with  the  House  of  Lancaster,  and  who 
now  became  Henry  VII.  To  make  surer  of  his  position  he 
married  Edward  IV's  daughter. 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  629 

Some  authorities  date  the  New  Monarchy  in  England 
from  Edward  IV's  reign  and  others  from  that  of  Henry  VII, 
the  founder  of  the  Tudor  dynasty.  Edward  IV  The  New 
felt  that  he  had  conquered  his  throne  and  was  Monarchy 
self-willed  and  made  little  use  of  Parliament  except  to  put 
through  bills  of  attainder  against  his  enemies.  He  insti- 
tuted a  new  custom  called  "Benevolences,"  in  which  he  got 
m^oney  by  bringing  personal  pressure  to  bear  upon  wealthy 
individuals  and  corporations  such  as  those  of  the  muni- 
cipalities. This  was  really  taxation  without  the  consent  of 
Parliament.  Benevolences,  however,  were  an  irregular  and 
precarious  kind  of  revenue  which  could  not  be  depended 
upon  as  could  the  permanent  annual  taille  of  France.  Nor 
did  the  English  kings  establish  a  standing  army.  Henry  VII 
was  a  sort  of  English  Louis  XI,  however,  equally  shrewd  and 
calculating  and  stingy  and  averse  to  war,  but  not  quite  so 
superstitious  and  cruel  and  despicable.  He  continued  the 
practice  of  benevolences  and  did  not  call  Parliament  often. 
He  instituted  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber,  made  up  of  mem- 
bers of  his  own  council,  to  punish  the  disorders  of  the  great 
nobles  and  to  deal  with  cases  where  the  common-law  courts 
and  juries  had  proved  ineffectual.  This  court  restored 
order  in  the  land,  but  it  was  liable  to  be  an  instrument  of 
tyranny,  since  it  was  not  bound  by  the  rules  of  the  common 
law,  could  employ  torture,  and  was  under  close  royal  influ- 
ence. Royal  influence,  indeed,  was  to  reign  supreme  in  Eng- 
land for  the  next  hundred  years,  since  the  king  gave  order 
and  protection,  which  the  Lancastrian  Parliaments  had 
failed  to  do. 

Battles  and  executions  during  the  period  of  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses  had  considerably  depleted  the  ranks  of  the  nobil- 
ity.   In  England  as  in  France  the  fifteenth  cen-  r^^^  middle 
tury  was  the  time  of  the  rise  of  the  middle  class,  class  in 
The  English  towns  now  reached  the  height  of     "^  ^'^ 
their  prosperity  and  independence.    Secure  behind  their 
walls,  they  took  little  part  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  and 
during  that  period,  as  well  as  in  the  preceding  weak  reign  of 
Henry  VI,  profited  by  freedom  from  the  interference  of  the 


630        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

central  government.  In  the  country  much  of  the  manorial 
organization  had  given  way  to  tenants  who  rented  large 
plots  of  land  on  fifty-year  leases.  The  Paston  Letters  show 
how  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  family  of  plebeian  origin 
could  gradually  amass  considerable  landed  property  and 
hold  important  political  and  judicial  offices.  Both  Edward 
IV  and  Henry  VII  legislated  in  the  interest  of  the  com- 
mercial classes  and  of  the  economic  welfare  of  the  country. 
Native  English  merchants  were  now  getting  the  foreign 
trade  into  their  hands.  The  Tudors  themselves  were  really 
an  upstart  Welsh  family  of  middle-class  origin,  and  they 
understood  how  to  deal  with  that  class,  how  to  bully  it  and 
how  to  please  it.  They  replenished  the  nobility  with  other 
upstarts  like  themselves,  whom  for  a  time  they  were  able  to 
control.  When  Parliament  did  meet  in  the  Tudor  period,  it 
was  generally  of  one  mind  with  the  king.  When  young 
Henry  VIII  succeeded  his  father  in  1509,  he  found  the 
treasury  full  and  his  people  devoted  to  him. 

The  Christian  kingdoms  of  the  Spanish  peninsula,  during 
the  later  Middle  Ages  as  before,  had  many  disputed  succes- 
c    .    .  sions  and  family  quarrels,  and  intermarried  and 

bpain  in  .  . 

the  later  fought  with  one  another  continually.  France 
^^^  and  England  had  interfered  in  their  afTairs  a 
good  deal  during  the  Hundred  Years  War,  and  the  Kings 
of  Aragon  were  much  occupied  with  Sicily.  But  no  great 
changes  in  the  constitutional  institutions  of  these  kingdoms 
or  in  their  relative  size  and  importance  occurred  until  the 
second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Meanwhile  the  Mo- 
hammedans continued  to  hold  Granada  for  over  two  cen- 
turies after  they  had  lost  the  rest  of  the  peninsula. 

But  the  marriage  in  1469  of  Ferdinand,  who  was  King  of 
Aragon  from  1479  to  15 16,  with  Isabella,  Queen  of  Castile 
Union  of  and  Lcon  from  1474  to  1504,  and  their  conquest 
Ferd^nand^*^  of  Granada  from  the  Moors,  which  was  com- 
and  Isabella  pleted  In  1 492,  ended  the  separate  existence  of 
those  kingdoms  which  merged  henceforth  in  one  nation  and 
state,  since  called  Spain.  Spanish  Navarre  was  annexed  to 
Castile  by  Ferdinand  after  Isabella's  death.  Ferdinand  and 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  631 

Isabella  accomplished  more  than  mere  territorial  union. 
They  were  both  able  organizers  and  greatly  developed  the 
central  government  and  royal  power.  They  made  much  use 
of  central  councils  of  state  and  finance,  and  selected  lawyers 
rather  than  the  nobles  and  higher  clergy  as  their  chief 
administrative  ofificials.  Private  war  was  forbidden,  castles 
could  not  be  built  without  the  monarch's  consent,  an  ex- 
amination was  made  into  the  validity  of  the  nobles'  titles 
to  their  lands  and  considerable  property  was  thus  reclaimed 
for  the  Crov/n.  Isabella  revived  an  old  institution  by  which 
armed  brotherhoods  in  the  Castilian  towns  had  kept  the 
peace  in  the  localities,  but  she  brought  it  under  royal  con- 
trol and  used  it  for  the  ends  of  the  central  government. 
Ferdinand  extended  this  institution  of  the  Holy  Herman- 
dad  to  Aragon.  The  two  monarchs  also  revived  the  Holy 
Inquisition  of  the  thirteenth  century  and  had  it  transferred 
from  papal  to  royal  control  in  their  territories.  In  fact  the 
Spanish  Church  as  a  whole  was  brought  under  the  control 
of  the  Crown,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  reformed.  Isabella  also 
had  Ferdinand  made  Grand  Master  of  the  three  great  mili- 
tary orders  as  vacancies  occurred,  and  thus  brought  those 
powerful  organizations  with  their  trained  soldiery  under 
direct  royal  control.  The  long  struggle  with  the  Moors  for 
Granada  during  this  reign  also  produced  an  efficient  fight- 
ing force.  The  medieval  army  was  modernized  and  the 
Spanish  infantry  were  soon  to  eclipse  the  military  reputa- 
tion even  of  the  Swiss.  An  attempt  was  made  to  unify  the 
laws  of  Castile  which  were  published  in  eight  books. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  not  favorably  inclined  to- 
ward representative  assemblies  and  parliamentary  govern- 
ment, and  once  sixteen  years  went  by  without  a  p^  ^j^^ 
meeting  of  the  Cortes  of  Castile.  The  monarchs  liberties 
treated  the  towns  in  their  dbminions  with  con-  ^"   ^'^  ^^^ 
sideration,  however,  as  they  wished  their  support,  and  both 
industry  and  agriculture  were  in  a  flourishing  condition. 
They  also  looked  after  the  social  and  economic  welfare  of 
their  people  and  gave  the  peasants  and  lower  classes  better 
protection  than  was  afforded  by  any  other  government  of 


632        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  time.  Queen  Isabella  is  believed  to  have  established  the 
first  field  hospital  when  in  1484  she  provided  six  large  tents 
fully  furnished  and  free  medical  and  surgical  attendance. 
Three  years  later  it  took  four  hundred  "ambulancias"  to 
carry  the  Queen's  Hospital.  Yet  Isabella  and  Ferdinand 
drove  thousands  of  Jews  from  their  realm  and  through  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  burned  at  the  stake  many  heretics  and 
Moorish  or  Jewish  converts  to  Christianity  who  had  re- 
lapsed to  their  original  faith.  Spain  was  not  a  land  of  great 
economic  resources  and  this  persecution  of  some  of  its  most 
prosperous  inhabitants  and  those  most  skillful  in  business 
and  industries  further  operated  to  prevent  the  growth  of  a 
middle  class.  The  discovery  of  America  still  more  increased 
the  power  of  the  Crown,  which  ruled  the  Spanish  colonies 
absolutely  and  derived  a  great  income  in  gold  and  silver 
bullion  from  them.  This  did  not  in  the  long  run  stimulate 
the  economic  development  of  Spain  itself,  however,  but 
rather  had  the  contrary  effect.  Castile  was  more  amenable 
to  the  great  increase  of  royal  power  under  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  than  Aragon,  which  clung  tenaciously  to  its  old  cus- 
toms and  local  liberties.  But  inasmuch  as  Castile  was  three 
times  as  large  as  Aragon  it  was  likely  in  the  end  to  swing 
the  smaller  kingdom  with  it. 

Ferdinand  was  a  very  astute  and,  it  must  be  added,  un- 
scrupulous diplomat.  He  deceived  or  outwitted  all  the  other 
^.  ,  European  powers  at  least  once  each.  When  it  was 

Diplomacy  j-  r- 

of  Ferdi-  reported  to  him  that  another  monarch  had  com- 
"^"  plained  that  the  King  of  Aragon  had  cheated  him 

twice,  Ferdinand  exclaimed,  "He  lies!  I  cheated  him  three 
times!"  A  favorite  method  with  Ferdinand  was  to  enter 
alliances  and  then  leave  the  others  in  the  lurch  as  soon  as 
he  had  secured  his  own  object.  He  was  generally  hostile  to 
France,  with  which  he  came  into  conflict  in  Italy  and  the 
Pyrenees.  Hence  he  married  his  children  to  princes  of  other 
nations,  giving  his  daughter  Joanna  to  Philip,  Archduke  of 
Austria,  the  son  of  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Burgundy,  and 
his  other  two  daughters  to  John  II  of  Portugal  and  Henry 
VIII  of  England.   Finally,  however,  after  the  death  of  Isa- 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  633 

bella  he  himself  married  a  niece  of  the  French  king.  Upon 
the  death  of  Isabella,  Joanna  and  Philip  had  claimed  the 
throne  of  Castile  which  Ferdinand  reluctantly  relinquished 
to  them.  But  Philip  soon  died  and  Joanna  was  literally 
crazed  with  grief,  so  that  Ferdinand  recovered  Castile  and 
ruled  it  until  his  death. 

Portugal  had  with  some  difficulty  maintained  its  inde- 
pendence of  Castile  during  the  later  Middle  Ages.  It  had 
increased  Its  territory  in  the  fifteenth  century  by 
the  acquisition  of  Ceuta  and  by  further  conquests 
in  Moorish  northwestern  Africa  and  exploration  along  the 
coast  and  settlement  in  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
king  who  did  most  to  increase  the  power  of  the  monarchy 
within  Portugal  was  John  II  (1481-1495).  The  voyage  of 
Vasco  da  Gama  opened  the  prospect  of  a  Portuguese  com- 
mercial and  maritime  empire  in  Africa  and  the  Indian 
Ocean  in  the  next  century,  stimulated  national  spirit  and 
enterprise,  and  increased  the  power  of  the  Crown,  since  the 
Eastern  trade  was  made  a  royal  monopoly. 

Last  in  our  survey  of  the  states  of  western  Europe  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century  we  come  to  the  Italian  pen- 
insula. In  a  way  the  French  invasions  of  Italy  ^h  f  h 
at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning  of  the  invasions  of 
sixteenth  century  were  nothing  new.  Goths  and  '^  ^ 
Lombards,  Byzantines  and  Saracens  and  Normans,  Hohen- 
staufens  and  Angevins  and  Aragonese,  had  been  invading 
Italy  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and  much  of  the  penin- 
sula had  always  been  under  foreign  rule.  These  new  French 
invasions,  however,  led  to  important  political  changes  in 
the  peninsula  and  determined  that  instead  of  Italy's  be- 
coming a  strong  state  under  the  rule  of  one  king  like  Spain, 
France,  and  England,  or  remaining  like  Germany  divided 
into  small  states  ruled  by  native  princes,  it  was  to  become 
for  the  next  three  centuries  the  frequent  battlefield  of  for- 
eign monarchs  and  to  be  partitioned  in  treaties  by  them. 
These  invasions  closed  the  political  period  which  had  been 
at  the  basis  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  just  as  the  voyages 
of  discovery  destroyed  the  economic  prosperity  upon  which 


634        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

the  flourishing  of  art  and  letters  had  been  founded.  Three 
successive  French  kings,  Charles  VIII,  Louis  XII,  and 
Francis  I,  tried  to  win  Italian  possessions,  and  came  thereby 
into  relations  with  three  successive  popes,  Alexander  VI, 
Julius  II,  and  Leo  X.  Despite  their  efforts  the  chief  outcome 
of  the  period  of  invasions  was  the  introduction  of  the  House 
of  Hapsburg  into  Italy. 

In  1492  the  death  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  left  Florence 
under  the  rule  of  his  incompetent  son,  Piero,  and  deprived 
The  Italian  ^^aly  of  an  able  diplomat  who  had  preserved 
expedition  of  peace  and  the  balance  of  power  between  the 
rival  states  into  which  that  peninsula  was  di- 
vided. Charles  VIII  of  France  in  1491  had  attained  his 
twenty-first  year  and  had  married  Anne  of  Brittany  despite 
the  efforts  of  Maximilian,  Henry  VII  of  England,  and  Fer- 
dinand. He  now  determined  to  conquer  the  Kingdom  of 
Naples,  taking  advantage  of  the  claim  which  Rene  of  Prov- 
ence and  Anjou  had  bequeathed  to  Charles's  father,  Louis 
XI,  against  the  actual  ruler,  Ferrante  of  the  Aragonese  line. 
Charles  was  urged  to  invade  Italy  by  Lodovico  Sforza,  who 
was  usurping  the  throne  of  Milan  at  the  expense  of  his 
nephew  and  against  whom  Florence  and  Naples  were  con- 
spiring. Before  setting  out  Charles  found  it  necessary  to 
protect  his  rear  by  concessions  to  Henry  VII,  Maximilian, 
and  Ferdinand.  He  bought  Henry  off  with  money;  Maxi- 
milian with  Artois,  Charolais,  and  the  County  of  Burgundy, 
as  already  recounted;  and  ceded  to  Ferdinand  Cerdagne 
and  Roussillon  in  the  Pyrenees.  In  1494  he  crossed  the 
Alps. 

Lodovico  gave  Charles  free  passage  through  his  territory. 
Venice  held  aloof.  In  Florence  the  effect  of  Charles's  ap- 
proach was  the  overthrow  of  Piero  de'  Medici 
and  the  ascendancy  of  the  Dominican  friar, 
Savonarola,  who  set  up  an  aristocratic  constitution  mod- 
eled after  Venice  and  its  Grand  Council.  Savonarola  was  a 
popular  preacher  who  had  been  conducting  a  religious  re- 
vival in  Florence,  denouncing  the  sins  of  the  time  and  the 
abuses  in  the  Church,  especially  at  the  papal  court.  Mach- 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  635 

iavelli  heard  him  attacking  "your  books,  O  priests,  and 
treating  you  in  a  way  that  even  dogs  would  not  endure." 
Savonarola  also  assumed  the  role  of  a  prophet  and  seer  of 
visions,  and  had  much  to  say  about  a  scourge  of  God  which 
was  coming  upon  the  Italians  for  their  sins.  The  appear- 
ance of  Charles  VIII  seemed  to  the  people  a  fulfillment 
of  this  prediction.  "This  friar,"  wrote  the  cynical  Machia- 
velli,  "is  coloring  his  lies  to  suit  the  times."  Savonarola 
made  an  alliance  with  Charles  and  urged  him  to  proceed  to 
Rome  and  reform  the  Papacy. 

The  pope  at  this  time,  of  whom  Machiavelli  heard  Savona- 
rola say  "everything  that  can  be  said  of  any  great  villain," 
was  the  notorious  Alexander  VI  of  the  Spanish  Alexander 
family  of  Borgia.  Before  becoming  pope  he  had  ciir 
some  reputation  as  a  theologian,  but  as  pope  he  Borgia 
devoted  himself  largely  to  politics  and  especially  to  build- 
ing up  a  principality  for  his  illegitimate  son,  Csesar,  and 
negotiating  influential  marriages  for  his  daughter,  Lucrezia. 
Csesar  hesitated  at  no  violence  or  crime  to  accomplish  his 
political  designs,  and  both  he  and  his  father  were  popularly 
believed  to  be  adepts  at  poisoning.  Their  reputation  in  this 
particular  is  probably  grossly  exaggerated.  But  Alexander 
actually  negotiated  with  the  infidel  Turks  against  the  Chris- 
tian king,  Charles  VIII.  The  importance  of  Alexander  VI 
and  Caesar  Borgia,  however,  is  not  that  they  were  monsters 
seldom  seen  in  history,  but  that  they  were  representatives 
of  the  popes  and  despots  of  their  time.  The  cardinals  knew 
well  enough  that  Alexander  had  children  when  they  chose 
him  pope,  and  his  immediate  predecessor  had  had  children 
too.  As  for  Caesar,  Machiavelli  in  his  famous  book.  The 
Prince,  selected  him  as  the  model  for  all  who  would  become 
despots. 

Charles  did  not  pause  at  Rome  to  reform  the  Papacy  or 
to  depose  Alexander  VI,  but  hurried  on  to  Naples.    Fer- 
rante  I  had  died  in  1494 ;  his  successor,  Alfonso  II,   in  and  out 
resigned  in  favor  of  Ferrante  II,  who  in  his  turn  °^  Naples 
fled  before  the  French  without  a  struggle.   But  after  Charles 
had  wintered  in  Naples,  the  situation  in  the  north  of  the 


636        THE  HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

peninsula  began  to  assume  a  dangerous  aspect,  and  the  doors 
which  had  swung  open  so  readily  before  him  now  seemed 
about  to  be  bolted  behind  him.  Ferdinand  and  iVIaximilian 
had  united  with  Milan,  Venice,  and  the  pope  in  the  League 
of  Venice  against  him.  He  left  half  his  army,  which  a  winter 
of  dissipation  had  somewhat  enervated,  to  hold  Naples  and 
hurried  home  with  the  rest  before  Ferdinand  and  Maximilian 
could  stop  him.  Venice  and  Milan,  however,  nearly  did  so 
in  the  indecisive  battle  of  Fornovo.  The  French  troops  who 
had  been  left  behind  in  Naples  were  soon  expelled  and  the 
Aragonese  line  returned  in  the  person  of  its  fourth  ruler 
within  two  years,  Federigo. 

The  only  one  in  Italy  who  remained  true  to  the  French 
was  Savonarola,  and  his  government  in  Florence  ended  with 
Fate  of  his  burning  at  the  stake  on  the  charge  of  heresy 

Savonarola  jj^  1498.  He  had  tried  to  effect  a  puritanical  re- 
form in  the  manners  and  morals  of  the  Florentines,  and  had 
induced  them  to  destroy  a  great  pile  of  "vanities"  in  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  moment;  but  they  soon  tired  of  his 
strictness.  His  unfavorable  attitude  drove  many  artists 
away  from  Florence  to  other  centers.  The  Medici  and  the 
pope  were  of  course  both  bitterly  opposed  to  him.  A  final 
reason  for  his  fall  was  that  he  was,  as  Machiavelli  remarked, 
"a  weaponless  prophet." 

In  the  same  year  that  Savonarola  was  executed,  Charles 
VIII  died  childless  and  Louis  XII  of  the  Orleans  line  came  to 
Italian  ^^^  throne.  Through  his  grandmother,  Valentine 

policy  of  Visconti,  he  had  a  claim  to  Milan,  which  he 
proceeded  to  occupy,  imprisoning  Lodovico.  As 
for  Naples,  Louis  made  the  mistake  of  arranging  with  Fer- 
dinand that  they  should  conquer  it  together  and  divide  it 
equally.  Ferdinand  soon  occupied  it  all  and  forced  Louis  to 
sell  out  his  rights.  This  brought  a  third  of  the  peninsula 
directly  under  Spanish  rule:  the  recent  Aragonese  rulers  of 
Naples  had  not  been  Kings  of  Aragon,  still  less  of  a  united 
Spain  as  Ferdinand  was. 

In  1503  Alexander  VI  died  and  a  fiery  native  of  Genoa 
took  the  papal  title  of  Julius  II.  When  Michelangelo,  who 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  637 

had  been  commissioned  to  make  a  colossal  statue  of  the  pope 
at  Bologna,  asked  Julius  if  he  should  represent  juiius  ll 
him  with  a  book  in  his  hand,  the  warlike  pope  re-  ^^^  Venice 
plied,  "No,  with  a  sword!"  Venice  now  reaped  the  bitter 
fruit  of  her  fifteenth-century  policy  of  expansion  and  ag- 
gression in  northern  Italy,  when  she  quarreled  with  Julius 
at  the  same  time  that  she  was  already  at  war  with  Maximil- 
ian. The  powerful  League  of  Cambray  was  formed  against 
her  in  1508,  consisting  not  only  of  the  pope  and  the  emperor, 
but  also  of  France  and  Ferdinand  and  a  number  of  small 
Italian  states.  Venice  naturally  received  a  crushing  defeat 
and  had  to  surrender  her  possessions  in  the  peninsula.  They 
preferred  her  government,  however,  and  many  of  them  took 
the  first  opportunity  that  ofltered  itself  to  revolt  from  their 
new  masters  and  return  to  her  rule.  Venice  also  was  able 
later  to  repudiate  the  complete  submission  to  the  papal  de- 
mands in  ecclesiastical  matters  which  she  had  to  make  at 
the  moment.  But  she  never  quite  recovered  from  the  blow 
which  the  League  of  Cambray  dealt  her,  and  which,  to- 
gether with  the  loss  to  Portugal  of  so  much  of  her  Eastern 
trade,  resulted  in  time  in  her  decline. 

Having  taught  Venice  a  lesson,  Julius  II  turned  about  and 
formed  with  her  in  151 1  a  Holy  League  directed  against 
The  Holy  France.  Ferdinand,  who  was  always  on  the  win- 
League  j^jj^g  gj(jg^  joined  them,  as  did  young  Henry  VIII 
of  England,  the  Swiss  Confederates,  and  finally  Maximilian. 
In  short,  all  Europe  now  turned  against  Louis  XII  just  as 
before  all  had  picked  on  Venice.  The  French  were  driven 
out  of  Genoa  and  Milan,  and  the  Swiss  won  a  slice  of  Mil- 
anese territory.  Ferdinand  conquered  Navarre  for  himself, 
the  Medici  were  restored  to  power  in  Florence,  Julius  II 
recovered  Romagna  for  the  Papal  States.  Maximilian  had 
entered  the  league  too  late  and  had  contributed  too  little 
toward  its  success  to  receive  much  reward,  and  Henry 
VIII,  who  had  expected  Ferdinand  to  help  him  conquer 
Guienne,  found  that  his  father-in-law  had  made  a  fool  of 
him,  and  learned  the  bitter  lesson  of  distrust  in  humanity. 

Julius  II  died  in  15 13  and  Louis  XII  two  years  later. 


638        THE   HISTORY  OF   MEDIEVAL   EUROPE 

Leo  X,  a  son  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  who  through  his  father's 
Francis  I  influence  had  been  made  a  cardinal  at  the  age 
and  Leo  X  ^f  fourteen,  was  the  new  pope.  Francis  I,  a 
young  man  of  fine  manners  and  cultured  taste  but  of 
loose  and  selfish  morals,  came  to  the  throne  of  France, 
crossed  the  Alps,  and  by  the  startling  victory  of  Marignano 
over  the  highly  reputed  Swiss  troops  regained  Milan.  He 
then  agreed  with  the  pope  to  support  the  rule  of  the 
Medici  in  Florence,  which  was  soon  transformed  into  a 
hereditary  grand  duchy.  Leo  ceded  Parma  and  Piacenza 
to  Francis,  and  in  place  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of 
Bourges,  which  had  made  the  Gallican  Church  pretty  in- 
dependent, pope  and  king,  in  the  Concordat  of  Bologna, 
increased  their  own  influence  and  revenues  at  the  expense 
of  the  local  French  churches. 

The  power  of  France  thus  seemed  once  more  in  the  as- 
cendant, when  Ferdinand,  dying  in  1516,  bequeathed  all 
his  possessions  in  Spain,  Italy,  and  a  new  world 
to  his  grandson,  who,  though  educated  in  the 
Netherlands,  now  became  Charles  I  of  Spain.  Charles  was 
really  a  Hapsburg,  since  his  father  had  been  the  son  of  Maxi- 
milian; and  upon  that  emperor's  death  in  1519  Charles 
added  to  his  titles  and  territories  the  Hapsburg  family  lands 
in  Austria  and  the  Tyrol  and  the  Burgundian  possessions 
inherited  from  Charles  the  Bold.  He  was  also  elected  Holy 
Roman  Emperor  to  succeed  Maximilian  and  thereby  ac- 
quired imperial  claims  in  northern  Italy  as  well  as  a  vague 
authority  over  Germany.  His  imperial  title  was  Charles  V 
and  by  this  rather  than  his  Spanish  title  he  is  usually  known 
in  history.  He  had  causes  for  conflict  with  Francis  I  in 
Italy,  in  the  Pyrenees,  and  along  the  eastern  frontier  of 
France.  These  two  young  monarchs  were  by  far  the  most 
powerful  in  Europe,  and  the  central  political  interest  of  the 
next  half-century  lies  in  their  succession  of  wars  with  each 
other.  Indeed,  for  long  after  that  the  struggle  of  France 
and  Hapsburg  was  to  be  the  chief  feature  of  European 
politics.  Charles  V  had  not  merely  France  to  deal  with. 
In  Germany  a  monk  named  Martin  Luther  had  just  aroused 


RISE  OF  ABSOLUTISM  639 

a  national  feeling  and  a  religious  revolt  that  were  to  disrupt 
the  Church  and  work  great  political  and  social  changes. 
Since  the  great  medieval  Church  had  been  the  one  domi- 
nating and  constant  factor  all  through  the  Middle  Ages,  this 
Protestant  Revolt  in  a  way  marked  their  close. 

The  passing  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  in  many  respects  a 
matter  not  to  be  regarded  without  regret.  A  writer  who  was 
not  a  Roman  Catholic  and  who  knew  both  medi-   r.     •       c 

rassing  oi 

eval  and  modern  history,  Bishop  Stubbs,  of  the  medieval 
Church  of  England,  the  great  authority  on  the 
medieval  development  of  the  English  constitution,  has  thus 
compared  the  thirteenth  with  the  sixteenth  century:  "The 
sixteenth  century,  as  a  century  of  ideas,  real,  grand,  and 
numerous,  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. The  ideas  are  not  so  pure,  not  so  living,  nor  so  re- 
fined. The  men  are  not  so  earnest,  so  single-hearted,  so 
lovable  by  far.  Much  doubtless  has  been  gained  in  strength 
of  purpose  and  much  in  material  progress ;  but  compare  the 
one  set  of  men  with  the  other  as  men,  and  the  ideas  as 
ideas,  and  the  advantage  is  wonderfully  in  favor  of  the 
semi-barbarous  age  above  that  of  the  Renaissance  and  the 
Reformation." 

EXERCISES  AND  READINGS 

Frederick  III. 
Stubbs,  Germany  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages,  pp.  184-204. 

The  Attempt  to  Reform  the  Constitution  of  the  Empire  (1486- 

1517)- 
Ranke,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  book  i,  including  a  good 
character  sketch  of  Frederick  III. 

A    BURGUNDIAN   CoURT   BaNQUET   OF    I454. 

Putnam,  Charles  the  Bold,  pp.  49-56. 

Philip  the  Good's  Castle  at  Hesdin. 
J.  F.  Kirk,  Charles  the  Bold,  vol.  i,  p.  187  et  seq. 

The  Swiss  Confederation  in  the  Later  Fifteenth  Century. 
Coolidge  on  Switzerland  history,  in  nth  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica,  bottom  of  page  251  to  top  of  page  254. 

The  French  Army  in  the  Time  of  Charles  VII. 
Munro  and  Sellery,  Medieval  Civilization,  pp.  547-74. 


640        THE   HISTORY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Character  of  Louis  XI. 

Kirk,  Charles  the  Bold,  vol.  I,  pp.  165-74. 

Kitchin,  History  of  France,  vol.  ir,  book  i,  chap.  ll,  pp.  24-34. 

Louis  XI  at  Peronne. 

Kitchin,  op.  cit.,  vol.  il,  book  I,  chap.  ll,  pp.  66-72. 

Reign  of  Louis  XI. 

Duruy,  History  of  France  (English  translation),  chaps,  xxxiv  and  xxxv, 

pp.  251-74. 
G.  Masson,  Story  of  Medieval  France,  chap,  xiv,  pp.  281-303. 

French  Civilization  in  the  Fifteenth  Century. 
Masson,  op.  cit.,  chap,  xvi,  pp.  326-42. 

The  Wars  of  the  Roses. 

Cross,  History  of  England  and  Greater  Britain,  pp.  260-76. 

Reign  of  Henry  VII  and  English  Civilization  in  the  Fifteenth 
Century. 
Cross,  op.  cit.,  chap,  xviii,  pp.  278-92. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

M.  Hume,  Spain,  147Q-1788 ;  pp.  i-ii,  on  foreign  affairs;  pp.  11-30,  on 
domestic  government.  (Both  these  passages  are  written  by  Arm- 
strong, not  by  Hume.) 

The  Spanish  Monarchy,  1474-1525. 
Cheyney,  European  Background  of  American  History,  chap,  v,  pp.  79-103. 

Savonarola. 

Symonds,  A  Short  History  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  chap,  v,  pp.  85-104. 

The  It.\lian  Expedition  of  Charles  VIII. 
Symonds,  op.  cit.,  chap,  vi,  pp.  105-20. 

Letter  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  to  his  Young  Son  (Later  Leo  X) 
advising  him  how  to  conduct  himself  as  a  Cardinal. 
Whitcomb,  Source  Book  of  Italian  Renaissance,  pp.  80-84. 

Machiavelli,  The  Prince. 

(See  close  of  chap,  xxxi  of  this  book). 


INDEX 


The  more  important  passages  are   indicated  by  heavy  type.    Semi-colons 
denote  a  change  of  subject 


Aachen,  88,  209,  212-13,  271,  398 

Aargau,  542 

Abacus,  375 

Abano,  see  Peter  of 

Abbas,  180 

Abbassid  dynasty,  180,  184,  198,  309, 

549 

Abbot,  161-63,  264,  361, 481,  484,  534; 
and  see  Monasticism 

Abd-er- Rahman  I,  180 

Abd-er- Rahman  III,  180,  188-89 

Abel,  97 

Abelard,  379-83,  396 

Absolution,  papal,  297;  and  see  In- 
dulgences 

Absolutism,  28-30,  70,  131,  187,  199, 
209,  459,  469.  490,  572,  chap. 
zxxiii 

Abu-Bekr,  180 

Abyssinia,  138,  174,  393,  609 

Academic  degrees,  378,  389 

Academic  dress,  392 

Academy  of  Plato,  380 

Accolade,  252 

Acre,  321-23 

Adam,  3 

Adam  of  Bremen,  376 

Adelard  of  Bath,  383-84,  388 

Adige  River,  342 

Administration,  Roman,  27,  70-71, 
256;  survives  barbarian  invasions, 
86,  117,  121,  154;  influences  eccle- 
siastical organization,  1 14-15;  By- 
zantine, 131,  135;  reformed  by  Jus- 
tinian, 140-41;  Prankish,  203, 
205,  256;  Flemish  municipal,  365; 
university,  391 ;  papal,  434;  of  Fred- 
erick II  in  Sicily,  469-70;  Anglo- 
Norman,  474;  Capetian,  491-92, 
507-10,  519;  in  German  principali- 
ties, 615;  Spanish,  631 

Admiralty,  courts  of,  336 

Adolf  of  Nassau,  538,  541 

Adrianople,  battle  of,  75-76,  80,  88; 
taken  by  Turks,  556 

Adriatic  Sea,  12,  17,  53,80,  118,  226, 
308,  314,  341-43,  345,  353,  442,  583 

Advowson,  282 

/Egean  Sea,  17,  19,  21,  26,  34,  54,  229, 
465,  553-54 


^gidius,  88 

^neas,  97,  407 

^neas  Sylvius,  see  Pope  Pius  II 

Mneid,  412 

i^ischylus,  21,  24,  65 

/Ethiopia,  138 

^thiopic,  407 

Aetius,  83-86,  88 

Africa,  19,  40,  114,  188-90,  633;  cir- 
cumnavigation of,  15,  394-95,  608- 
II;  trade  with  central,  20,  34,  184 

Africa,  North,  10,  14,  19-20,  23; 
Roman,  33-36,  39,  66,  68,  75,  79-81, 
83,  86;  Christian,  95-96,  iii;  Van- 
dal, chap,  vii,  128;  Byzantine,  135- 
39,  150,  155,  157;  Mohammedan, 
178,  180,  182,  188,  190,  209,  216, 
226,  229,  298,  302,  313,  328,  357, 
376,  633 

Africa,  of  Petrarch,  588 

Agesilaus,  21 

Agincourt,  battle  of,  526 

Agriculture,  Roman,  36-37;  monas- 
tic, 162-63;  Scandinavian,  217; 
manorial,  233-37;  of  Slavs,  305; 
medieval,  320,  327,  336,  358,  362, 
364,  367-68,  486,  515-16,  631 

Aidan,  166 

Aimeri,  Viscount  of  Thouars,  508 

Aistulf,  King  of  the  Lombards,  196- 

97 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  see  Aachen 

Alamanni,  75,  79,  88-90,  119,  122, 
136,  166-67,  194,  213 

Alamannia,  212;  and  see  Suabia 

Alani,  75-77,  79,  81,  91,  117 

Alaric  I,  King  of  the  West  Goths,  79- 
82,  92,  95,  112,  115,  122,  291 

Alaric  II,  122 

Alava,  304 

Alba,  404 

Albania,  151,  554 

Albert  the  Bear,  Margrave  of  Bran- 
denburg, 305 

Albert  I,  of  Austria,  Holy  Roman  Em- 
peror, 538 

Albert  II,  540,  571 

Albert!,  Leon  Battista,  599 

Albertus  Magnus,  385-86,  451 

Albi,  442 


642 


INDEX 


Albigensian  Crusade,  405,  444-45, 
450,  456,  460,  466,  483,  491,  495, 
570 

Albigensians,  see  Cathari 

Alboin,  King  of  the  Lombards,  156 

Alchemy,  182-83,  388 

Alcibiades,  70 

Alcohol,  182;  and  see  Drinking 

Alcuin,  211,  373 

Aldermen,  362;  and  see  Ealdorman 

Alen^on,  House  of,  625-26 

Aleppo,  344 

Alessandria,  353 

Alexander  the  Great,  22-23,  26,  40, 
53,  190,  211,  407,  591 

Alexander  Severus,  Roman  Emperor, 
68-69 

Alexander  II,  Pope,  287 

Alexander  III,  297,  352-53 

Alexander  V.  567 

Alexander  VI,  634-36 

Alexandria,  22,  184,  343,  390,  608; 
Patriarch  of,  102-03,  106-08,  156, 
177,  190 

Alexandrines,  407 

Alexius  Comnenus,  Byzantine  Em- 
peror, 310-11,  315-16,  343 

Alfonse,  brother  of  Louis  IX  of  France, 

497 

Alfonso  VI,  King  of  Castile  and  Leon, 
302-03 

Alfonso  X,  the  Wise,  King  of  Castile, 
384,  386,  410,  537 

Alfonso  I,  King  of  Aragon,  Sicily, 
Naples,  586,  593 

Alfonso  II,  King  of  Naples,  635 

Alfred  the  Great,  King  of  England, 
220-23,  275,  399,  474 

Algebra,  386 

Algeria,  180 

Allegory  and  allegorical  interpreta- 
tion, 113,  154,  171,  408,  411-12 

Alliterative  verse,  400,  402;  examples 
of,  516-17,  562-65 

Almansor,  188-89 

Almeria,  184,  186,  1 88-89,  304 

Almohades,  302,  304,  309,  328,  453 

Almoravides,  302-04,  309,  312 

Alphabet,  21,  55,  183,  386 

Alpine  race,  10,  139 

Alps,  11-12,  17,  23,  42,  80,  88-90,  151, 
197,  213,  227,  247,  266,  271,  290, 
335.  342,  355,  357,  369,  374,  378, 
389,  398,  431,  492,  539,  553,  601, 
617,  634,  638;  passes  of,  350,  353, 
468,  583 

Alsace,  88-90,  537,  621 

Alsace-Lorraine,  260 

Altaians,  55,  548 

Amalfi,  313,  341,  343 

Amandus,  St.,  167 


Ambrose,  St.,  77,  113,  157 

Ambulances,  632 

Ambulatory,  419,  431,  433 

America  and  Americans,  8,  16,  358, 
391,  612 

America,  discovery  of,  15,  223,  587, 
610,  632 

Amiens,  366,  510,  524;  cathedral  of, 
430,  432 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  66,  107 

Amphitheaters,  2,  32-33,  46,  126,  435 

Amurath,  see  Murad 

Amusements,  of  ancient  cities,  25,  27, 
33;  of  Roman  Empire,  37-38,  66;  of 
early  Germans,  43;  during  bar- 
barian invasions,  92-94;  early  medie- 
val, 126;  Mohammedan,  184,  320; 
feudal,  252-53;  of  students,  392; 
folk-festivals,  409;  of  Edward  II, 
485;  Hanse  games,  543;  fools  and 
jesters,  562;  of  Frederick  III,  614; 
Burgundian,  617-18,  639;  and  see 
Hunting 

Anagni,  505 

Anastasius,  Byzantine  Emperor,  128, 
132 

Anathemas,  194-95,  438,  441 ;  and  see 
Excommunication 

Ancestor  worship,  24,  45 

Ancona,  March  of,  461-62,  464 

Andalusia,  188 

Angelico,  Fra,  605 

Angers,  274,  376 

Angevin,  see  Anjou,  House  of 

Angles,  85,  118,  166,  220-21,  233 

Anglo-Norman  monarchy,   226,   277, 

474 
Anglo-Saxons,  122,  160,  167,  169-70, 

192,  202,  220,  225,  238,  240,  406, 

474,  487 
Anglo-Saxon   Chronicle,   222-23,  399~ 

400 
Anglo-Saxon  coins,  224,  369 
Anglo-Saxon  conquest,  170,  398 
Anglo-Saxon  language,  170,  398,  400, 

474,  487 
Anglo-Saxon  law,    169,   221-22,   240, 

277 
Anglo-Saxon  literature,  168,  170,  222- 

23,  399-400,  487 
Anglo-Saxon  state,  167,  170,  220-22, 

275-77,  400 

Angora,  battle  of,  557 

Angouleme,  422 

Animals  in  medieval  literature,  407- 
08;  in  sculpture,  603;  in  Renais- 
sance painting,  605;  and  see  Eques- 
trian statues 

Anjou,  274,  321,  384,  457,  492,  494, 
506,  508,  626;  first  House  of,  274, 
278,  459;  and  see  Plantagenet;  sec- 


INDEX 


643 


ond  House  of,  471-72,496-97,  553, 

586,  625-26,  633-34 
Annals,  163,  199,  222,  375 
Annates,  560 

Anne,  Duchess  of  Brittany,  626,  634 
Anno,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  287 
Anonymousness,  of  Chansons  de  geste, 

403;  of  medieval  architects,  416;  of 

medieval  sculptors,  601 
Ansbach,  540 
Anselm,   Archbishop  of   Canterbury, 

293,  380 
Anselm  of  Laon,  380-81 
Anthemius,  praetorian  prefect,  80 
Anthemius  of  Tralles,  129 
Anthropology,  3-5,  9 
Antichrist,  549,  564 
Antioch,  23,  143,  150,  308,  316,  318- 

19;  Patriarch  of,  102,  156,  190 
Antipopes,  see  Schism 
Antiquity,  romances  of,  407 
Antony,  St.,  109-10,  112 
Apennines,  17,  80,  166,  353-54 
Apocryphal  scriptures,  loi 
Apollinare,  see  Sant' 
Apollinaris,  see  Sidonius 
Apollo,  113 

Apologists,  Christian,  104,  106 
Apostolic  poverty,  100,  443,  448,  451, 

561,  563,  569 
Apostolic  see,  see  Papacy 
Apostolic  succession,  107 
Appanages,  507,  624-25 
Appeals  to  Rome  (papal  court),  295, 

297-98,  463,  518,  573 
Appenzell,  542 
Apprentices,    331-33,    338-39,    390, 

515,  604,  618 
Apse,  146,  chap,  xxii 
Apuleius,  63,  66,  74 
Apulia,  226,  302,  468 
Aqueducts,  32,  73,  755 
Aquileia,  Archbishop  of,  134 
Aquinas,  Thomas,  385-86,  411,  413, 

451,  590 
Aquitaine  or  Aquitania,  93,  118,  179, 

198,  200,  212-13,  267,  272,  278,  321, 

405,  457,  492,  627 
Arabia,  Arabic,  and  Arabs,  7,  14,  40, 

151,  chap.  X,  192-94,  196,  199-200, 

212,  218,  224,  227,  229,  308-09, 

320,  324,  328,  369,  373,  376, 383-88, 

393,  397,  407,  410,  469,  611 
Arabian  Nights,  182 
Arabian  poetry,  172-73,  182,  184-85, 

189 
Arabic  numerals,  183,  386 
Aragon,  14,  273,  303-05,  357,  404r-05, 

410,  445, 448, 45&-56,  471,  488,  497, 

508,  566,  574,  586,  630-34,  636 
Aral  Sea,  55-56 


Aramaic,  182 

Arbogast,  77-78 

Arcadius,  Roman  Emperor,  78,  80 

Arch,  round,  32,  144,  420,  424,  600; 
pointed,  424-26,  430-31,  601 

Arch  of  Constantine,  66 

Archseology,  3-5,  41-42 

Archbishop,  102,  114,  280,  375-76, 
394,  436-37,  456-60,  481,  534;  and 
see  Aquileia,  Bordeaux,  Canter- 
bury, Cologne,  Dalmatia,  Magde- 
burg, Mainz,  Milan,  Narbonne, 
Prague,  Ravenna,  Rheims,  Treves, 
York 

Archdeacon,  286,  295,  437,  484,  562 

Architecture,  ancient,  20;  Greek,  21; 
Roman,  32-33,  418-19,  424,  599- 
601;  early  Christian,  82-83;  early 
medieval,  26;  the  first  Serbian 
churches,  152;  southern  France, 
271;  Italian  municipal,  353-54; 
German,  369;  English,  487;  Renais- 
sance, 587,  599-601,  605-07;  and 
see  Byzantine,  Gothic,  Romanesque, 
basilica,  cathedral,  house,  mosque 

Archpriest,  438 

Arena,  see  Amphitheater 

Argonautic  expedition,  407 

Argonne,  364 

Argos,  79 

Arians,  55,  102,  105,  107,  III,  120, 
124,  126,  135,  138 

Ariosto,  593 

Aristocracy,  see  Feudalism,  Nobility, 
Oligarchy 

Aristotle,  22,  31,  125,  183,  379-80, 
384r-86,  411,  587,  589-90,  592 

Arithmetic,  124-25 

Aries,  90,  126 

Aries,  Kingdom  of,  261,  271,  292,  538 

Armagnac,  Count  of,  526,  625-26 

Armagnacs,  party  of,  526,  531 

Armenia,  in,  177,  309,  455,  556 

Armenia,  Lesser  or  Little,  316,  344, 

453,  550 

Armenian  language,  407 

Armor,  of  Northmen,  218-20;  feudal, 
252;  medieval  manufacture  of,  334; 
of  Black  Prince,  517;  of  Joan  of 
Arc,  529;  in  sculpture,  604 

Army,  Spartan,  25;  Roman,  27-29,  61, 
68-70,  75,  99;  early  German,  47-48; 
barbarian  troops  in  Roman  and 
Byzantine  service,  77-79,  86,  91, 
133,  172;  size  of  invading  German 
armies,  119;  Justinian's,  138,  149; 
Lombard,  170;  Prankish,  202-04; 
Norse  soldiers  of  adventure,  217, 
301;  Anglo-Saxon,  220-21;  feudal, 
239, 242, 251-52,  257, 276-77 ;  Cape- 
tian,  267,  492;  crusading,  311,  314- 


644 


INDEX 


17;  of  communes,  347,  363,  494; 
papal,  469;  of  Edward  III,  513;  de- 
feats of  feudal  armies,  488,  499, 
514;  French,  527-29,  623,  629,  636, 
639;  Mongol,  550-51;  Turkish,  554; 
Florentine,  590 ;  imperial,  615;  Swiss, 
621,  638;  Spanish,  631;  and  see 
Knights,  Mercenaries 
Arnulf,  Bishop  of  Metz,  193-94 
Arnulf,  King  of  the  East  Franks,  227, 

261-62 
Arras,  364,  366;  Treaty  of,  529 
Art,  and  archaeology,  4;  geography  and, 
12;  Roman,  62;  classical,  423-24; 
early  Christian,  92,  1 12-13,  1^6; 
early  medieval,  125-26;  Scandina- 
vian, 225;  medieval,  324-25,   332, 

339,  369,  397,  434,  474,  482,  515, 
521;  Renaissance,  576,  587,  591, 
597-607,  613,  626,  634,  636;  and  see 
Architecture,  Painting,  Sculpture. 
Greek,  Byzantine 

Artevelde,  Jacob  van,  512-13,  521 

Artevelde,  Philip  van,  524 

Arthur,  King,  406-07 

Arthur,  nephew  of  King  John  of  Eng- 
land, 457 

Arthurian  romances,  406-07,  409,  415 

Arli,  348;  and  see  Gilds 

Artillery,  623 

Artisans,  revolts  of  Flemish,  498-99, 
524,  618;  and  see  Gilds 

Artois,  364,  488,  497,  501,  525,  616, 
626,  634 

Aryans,  10,  21,  42;  and  see  Indo- 
Europeans 

Asceticism,  Neo-Platonic,  65;  early 
Christian,  loo,  109-12,  154;  of  St. 
Louis,  495;  and  see  Monasticism 

Asia  and  Asiatics,  15,  34,  55-56,  58- 
60,  71,  109,  114,  149,  151,  189-90, 
216,  228,  233,  301,  309,  315,  548, 
554,  610;  Roman  province  of,  68; 
relations  of  western,  to  eastern  Eu- 
rope, 10-12, 22, 53,  55, 556;  medieval 
penetration  of,  393-94,  515,  550; 
and  see  Nomads 

Asia  Minor,  19-20,  23,  34,  60-61,  79, 
86-87,  150,  177,  190,  309,  311,  313- 
18, 320-2 1 , 324-25, 357, 405, 554, 556 

Aspar,  86 

Assemblies,  popular  or  national,  in 
the  ancient  city-state,  26;  early 
German,  48;  Roman,  60;  Frankish, 
194,  202;  Bavarian,  264;  Venetian, 
343;  in  towns  of  southern  France, 
357;  of  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  464; 
English,  479;  medieval  representa- 
tive, 488-90;  French,  511;  German, 
536;  and  see  Cortes,  Diet,  Estates, 
Parliament 


Asses,  Feast  of,  415 

Assisi,  448-49 

Assizes,  476 

Assizes  of  Jerusalem,  319 

Assonanced  verse,  402 

Assyria,  22 

Astrology,  23,  69,  96-97,  102,  106, 
183,  384,  387-88,  614 

Astronomy,  23,  124,  189,  378-79.  386, 
609,  611 

Asturias,  273,  304 

Ataulf,  King  of  the  West  Goths,  81-82 

Athanaric,  55 

Athanasius,  iii 

Athens,  36,  65,  79,  92,  134,  211,  380, 
558;  Duchy  of,  466 

Athletics,  25,  392,  592 

Atlantic,  23,  118,  183,  188,  304-05, 
608-09,  612,  633 

Atomic  theory,  22,  388 

Attabi  stuffs,' 1 85 

Attains,  Roman  Emperor,  81-S2 

Attila,  84-85,  87,  117,  401 

Aucassin  et  Nicolette,  409,  415 

Augsburg,  369,  532 

Augustine,  St.,  Bishop  of  Hippo,  65, 
chap,  vi,  154,  157, 298,  381,  416,  442 

Augustine,  St.,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 164 

Augustinian  Order  and  Rule,  96,  298, 

451 
Augustus,  imperial  title,  71,  208,  493 
Augustus,  Caesar,  28,  35,  98 
Aurelian,  Roman  Emperor,  70,  72 
Auricular  confession,  440,  563 
A  usculta  fill  charissime,  504 
Austin  canons,  see  Augustinian 
Austrasia,  118,  166,  168,  179,  192-94, 

261 
Austria,    15,  307,   537-40,   542,  553, 

568,  615-16,  621,  632,  638 
Austria-Hungary,  40,  537 
Authorities,  trust  in,  382-83,  385 
Auvergne,   267,   272,   313,  375,  438, 

492,  497,  510 
Avars,  58,  140,  150-51,  154,  199-200, 

227-28;  Avarian  Mark,  203 
Averroes,  385 
Avicenna,  385 
Avignon,   506,   541,   560-61,  566-67, 

575 
Avranches,  298 
Azores  Islands,  314 
Azov,  Sea  of,  229,  550 

Baal,  worship  of,  64 

Babylon,  20-22,  70,  103,  184,  336 

Babylonia,  176-77 

Babylonian  Captivity,  560 

Bacchus,  392 

Bacon,  Roger,  388-89,  451,  590 


INDEX 


645 


Bagdad,  180,  182-85,  198,  227,  309, 

328,  549,  557 
Baian,  Khagan  of  the  Avars,  140 
Bailli,  269,  492,  507-10 
Bajazet,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  556-57 
Balance  of  power,  578,  634 
Baldwin,  Count  of  Edessa,  319 
Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  270 
Baldwin,  Latin  Emperor,  465 
Balearic   Islands,   83,   118,   135,   189, 

304 
Balkan  Mountains,  17,  22,  54,  76,  151, 

442,  548 
Balkan  peninsula,  76-79,  87,  131,  138, 

140,  151,  228,  314,  328,  453,  466, 

553-56,  558 
Balkan  peoples  and  states,  151,  228; 

and  see  Bulgaria,  Roumania,  Ser- 
bia, etc. 
Baltic  Sea,  11-12,  17,  40,  42,  54,  139- 

40,  184,  305-06,  328,  367,  369,  532, 

543-46,  552,  558,  608 
Baltic  Slavs,  305,  323 
Bamberg,  319 
Ban  of  Bosnia,  445 
Banking,  34,  325,  336,  355,  494,  500, 

584-85 
Bannockburn,  battle  of,  485,  488,  499 
Bapaume,  366 
Baptism,  72,  lox,  294,  335,  439;  and 

see  Font 
Baptisteries,  419,  601,  603-04 
Barbarians,   in    Roman   Empire,   23, 

67-68;    outside     Roman     Empire, 

chap,  iii;  Justinian  and,  131,  138, 

150;  of  eastern  Europe,  229;  and  see 

Invasions,  Nomads,  etc. 
Barbarossa,    see    Frederick    I,    Holy 

Roman  Emperor 
Barcelona,  81,  149,  188-89,  200,  273, 

303,  357,  366,  375,  456 
Bari,  226-27,  302;  Archbishop  of,  565 
Barons,    English,    459-60,    466,    474, 

480-85,  488,  496,  533 
Basel,  368,  538;  Council  of,  571,  573, 

575 
Basil,  St.,  Ill,  113 
Basil  I,  Byzantine  Emperor,  227 
Basil  II,  308 

Basilica,  32,  113,  143,  146-46,  419-21 
Basques,  10,  167,  200,  203,  272 
Bas-relief,  603 

Bathing,  43-44,  57,  lio-ii,  160,  175 
Baths  (buildings),  32,  126,  185 
Battle  of  the  Spurs,  499 
Battlements,  247-48,  600 
Batu,  grandson  of  jenghiz  Khan,  548 
Bavaria  and  Bavarians,  118,  122,  140, 

168, 194, 199-200,  203,  212-13,  227, 

259,  262,  264,  349,  392,   435,  533, 

539-40,  552,  561,  575,  616 


Bayonne,  358,  366,  522 

Bayreuth,  540 

Beast  epic,  see  Reynard  the  Fox 

Beatification,  529 

Beatrice,  411,  413-14,  588 

Beaucaire,  510 

Beaufort,  House  of,  628 

Beaumont  in  the  Argonne,  364 

Beauvais,  372,  437 

Bee,  Abbey  of,  376 

Becket,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 295-98,  458,  475,  493 

Bede,  159,  168,  171,  373,  399 

Bedford,  Duke  of,  527,  529 

Bedouins,  176 

Beggars,  313,  516,  530 

Beghards,  561 

Beguins,  561 

Beirut,  322 

Bejaunus,  392 

Bela  IV,  King  of  Hungary,  537 

Belgium,  269,  365,  422,  491,  616 

Belgrade,  557-58 

Belisarius,  129,  133,  135-36,  138-39, 
342 

Benedict,  St.,  of  Nursia,  160-61,  163, 

377 

Benedict  XI,  Pope,  505 

Benedict  XIII,  567-68 

Benedictine  Rule,  160-62,  168,  175, 
282 

Beneficium,  240-41,  255 

Benevento  (or  Beneventum),  Duchy 
of,  156,  169,  171,  196,  200,  226-27 

Benevolences,  629 

Beowulf,  42,  49,  399-400,  402,  415 

Berbers,  10,  135,  178-82,  187-89,  226- 
27;  and  see  Libyans  and  Moors 

Berengaria  of  Navarre,  321,  457 

Bergamo,  352 

Bergen,  543 

Bernard,  St.,  of  Clairvaux,  299-300, 
303,  320,  323,  381,  392 

Berne,  542 

Berri,  493-94,  626 

Bessarabia,  140,  229 

Bethlehem,  469 

Beziers,  445 

Bible,  and  history,  3;  and  art,  113, 
432;  quoted,  100,  103-04,  106-07, 
313,  429;  Gothic,  55,  398;  Latin,  96, 
113;  Slavonic,  152,  224;  Spanish, 
410;  English,  563;  New  Testament, 
98,  173,  442;  Greek,  113;  commen- 
taries on,  168,  381;  monks  memo- 
rize, no;  Charlemagne  and,  210; 
miscellaneous,  170,  268,  294,  382, 
409,  442,  562,  570,  616;  and  the 
Italian  Renaissance,  593,  602,  605 

Bibliography,  8,  17,  594 

Bills  of  attainder,  629 


646 


INDEX 


Bills  of  exchange,  355 
Biscay,  Bay  of,  226,  272,  304 
Bishop,  early  Christian,  100,  102,  105- 
06,  114;  in  early  Middle  Ages,  120, 
155,  157,  162,  169,  187,  193,  203;  in 
feudal  period,  219,  221,  264,  280-81, 
288-93,  295;  relations  with  towns, 
327,  341,  346,  349-50,  357>  360-61, 
3^3,   369-70;   relations  to  culture, 

388,  391,  418,  422;  in  later  Middle 
Ages,  436-39,  442-43,  447,  452,  457- 
58,  463,  481,  484,  501,  534-35,  562, 
574,  618 

Bithynia,  35,  54,  68-69 
Black  Death,  514-16,  518,  523,  531 
Black  Forest,  88,  621 
Black  Prince,  517,  522-23,  525 
Black  Sea,  12, 17,  21,  34, 40,  53-55, 71, 
84,  224,  345,  515,  550,  552-53,  583 
Blanche  of  Castile,  495 
Blasphemy,  294 
Blind  arcade,  421-22,  428,  431 
Blois,  270-71,  274,  528 
Blok,  quoted,  371 
Bobbio,  170 
Boccaccio,  593,  598 
Boethius,  124-25,  222,  379 
Bogomiles,  445 
Bohemia,  11,  202,  216,  228,  263,  307, 

389,  430,  435,  455,  532-33,  537-38, 
546,  551-53,  558-59,  561,  568-72, 
615-16 

Bohemian  Brotherhood,  571 

Bohemond,  310,  314-16,  319 

Boiardo,  593 

Bokhara,  551 

Bolingbroke,  Lord,  18 

Bologna,  295,  351-52,  377,  381,  389- 

90,  434,  470,  491,  573,  586,  637-38 
Boniface,  Count  of  Africa,  83-84 
Boniface,  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  464, 

466 
Boniface,  St.,  168-69,  171,  ^94 
Boniface  VIII,  Pope,  446,  483,  501, 

503-05 
Bonn,  88 
Bookkeeping,  35 
Booksellers,  185 
Bordeaux,  149,  179,  333,  358,  366,  522; 

Archbishop  of,  437,  506 
Borgia,  House  of,  635 
Borgia,  Caesar,  635 
Borgia,  Lucrezia,  635 
Boris  I,  King  of  Bulgaria,  152,  228-29 
Boroughs,  English,  367-68,  484 
Bosnia,  445,  549,  554,  556,  558 
Bosworth  Field,  battle  of,  628 
Botticelli,  605 
Bourbon,  House  of,  626 
Bourgeoisie,   408-09,   414,   494,   587, 

622;  and  see  Middle  class 


Bourges,  267,  510,  529,  573,  622,  638; 
"King  of,"  527 

Bouvines,  battle  of,  463 

Bow,  see  Cross,  and  Long 

Brabant,  Duchy  of,  356,  448,  524, 
616 

Bracton,  476 

Bramante,  607 

Brandenburg,  Mark  of,  228,  305,  307, 
533,  540,  547,  616 

Bremen,  369 

Brescia,  352 

Breslau,  549 

Brethren  of  the  Sword,  308,  544 

Bretigny,  Treaty  of,  514,  517-18 

Breton  dialect,  398 

Breton  March,  203 

Bretons,  260,  406,  434,  522;  and  see 
Brittany 

Breviary  of  Alaric,  122 

Brie,  625 

Brindisi,  314 

Bristol,  368,  609 

Britain,  19,  24,  29,  34,  36-37,  40,  75. 
78-79,  84-86,  1 18-19,  122,  164,  166, 
209,  328,  406 

British  Christians,  167,  169 

British  Empire,  261 

British  Isles,  11,  164,  166,  169,  192, 
219-20,  384,  401,  474,  487, 561 ; and 
see  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  Hebrides, 
Orkneys,  Shetlands,  England,  Scot- 
land 

Brittany,  118,  166,  170,  203,  213,  246, 
273-76, 333, 340,  379,  398,  406,  442, 
488,  493-94,  508,  513-14,  522,  625- 
26;  and  see  Breton 

Bronze  age,  4,  42 

Bronze,  sculpture  in,  603-04 

Brotherhood  of  man,  31,  62,  174 

Brotherhoods,  medieval,  335,  571, 
598,  631 

Bruce,  Robert,  488 

Bruges,  365-67,  498-99,  524,  543,  628 

Brunelleschi,  598-99,  601-03,  613 

Brunhilda,  127,  159,  166,  401 

Bruno,  374 

Brussels,  618 

Brutus,  413 

Brythonic  dialects,  398 

Bulgaria,  308,  453,  455,  549,  554,  556 

Bulgarians,  11,  139,  151-52,  228-29, 
308 

Bulgars,  58,  87,  139-40,  150,  548 

Bull,  papal,  503-04,  568 

Bullion,  from  Spanish  colonies,  632 

Bureaucracy,  73 

Burgos,  366 

Burgrave,  540 

Burgundians,  79,  81 ;  Kingdom  of  the, 
82,  84,  88-90,  chap,  vii;  party   of 


INDEX 


647 


the,   in  later  Middle  Ages,  525-27, 

529.  531  ,,.      , 

Burgundy,  Prankish,  118;  Kingdom 
of,  166,  192-93,  213,  219,  620;  Up- 
per and  Lower,  261;  see  also  King- 
dom of  Aries 

Burgundy,  County  of,  271,  510,  525. 
538,  616,  626,  634 

Burgundy,  Duchy  of,  260,  267,  271, 
281,  364,  376,  421,  488,  501,  508, 
525-27,  529,  541,  616,  626-27 

Burgundy,  House  of,  in  later  Middle 
Ages,  525,  614-21,  624-26,  638 

Burlesque  verse,  405 

Burma,  393 

Burning  at  the  stake,  411,  444.  447. 
507,  565.  569.  632,  636 

Business,  Roman,  33-34.  67, 7^ ;  monks 
and,  163,  206;  Arabian,  173;  early 
medieval,  327;  crusades  and,  325; 
government  and,  491,  503,  5^2,  5^5. 
618,  632;  Donatelloand,  603;  and 
see  Banking,  Bookkeeping,  Capital, 
Coinage,  Commerce,  Gilds,  Industry 

Buttress,  421,  425,  428,  433;  and  see 
Flying  buttress 

Byron,  Lord,  quoted,  337,  397.  621 

Byzant,  149,  303.  5^3 

Byzantine  art,  16,  126,  147-48,  152- 
53,  271,  419,  432 

Byzantine  architecture,  131,  143-47, 
153,  599,  601 

Byzantine  civilization,   167,  182,  373 

Byzantine  Empire,  87,  109,  120,  122, 
chap,  viii,  192,  224-25,  229,  270; 
overthrown  by  Fourth  Crusade,  465; 
Mohammedanism  and,  172,  176-78, 
185-86,  189-90;  in  Italy,  154-56, 
195-98,  207-09,  226-27,  265,  301- 
02,  341-43,  633;  Macedonian  and 
Comnenian  dynasties,  308-12,  315- 
16,  321,  324;  revived,  553-54'.  fall 
of,  558-59.  591,607 

Byzantine  literature,  119,  148,  229 

Byzantium,  71 

Ck  d'Oro,  599 

Caedmon,  168 

Caelian  Hill,  154 

Caen,  513 

Caesar,  Julius,  19-20,  41-49.  58,  211, 

261,  283,  413,  591  ,         „       . 

Caesar,  title  of,  14,  71;  and  see  Borgia 
Caesarea,  177 
Cahiers,  501 

Cairo,  180,  182,  227,  318-19,  328,  608 
Calabria,  196,  302 
Calais,  514,  518,  522,  526,  530 
Calendar,  14,  20,  83,  174,  386 
Calicut,  608,  611 
Caligula,  Roman  Emperor,  43 


Caliph,  179-80,  182,  184-85,  188-89, 

309-10 
Caliphate  of   Cordova,    180,    188-89, 

302 
Calixtins,  569 
Calvinists,  158 
Cambrai,  365-66 
Campania,  69 

Campanile,  421,  431,  602-03 
Camps,  Roman,  4,  29,  435 
Canary  Islands,  394,  610 
Canon,  418,  437;  regular,  298;  secular, 

458 
Canon  Law,  294-95,  300,  355,  377-78, 

389,  434,  475 
Canonization,  154,  297,  449,  495.  5^4 
Canossa,  290,  300 
Cansonetta,  404 
Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  164,  167, 

276,  293,  296-98,  380, 436,  457-58, 

475.  523.  564 
Canterbury  Tales,  298 
Cantons,  Swiss,  541-42 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  395,  609,  611 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  609,  611 
Capetian    dynasty,    266-71,    276-79, 

361,  375.  456,  485.  491-92,  508,  512 
Capital,  in  Roman  Empire,  34-35;  \^ 

Mohammedan  Spain,  186,  188;  in 

Middle  Ages,  2-3,  243-44,  325.  329" 

30,  332;  at  Venice,  343;  Italian,  355; 

English,  487;  French,  494,  503-04; 

capitalist  class  in  the  towns,  523- 

24;  German,  616;  Spanish,  632 
Capilani,  346 

Capitularies,  199,  204,  206,  214,  228 
Cappadocia,  114 
Carcassonne,  455,  510 
Cardinals,  285-86,  290,  434-35.  503. 

506,  565-68,  635,  638,  640 
Carinthia,  200,  228,  261,  307,  537-38 
Carloman,  brother  of  Pepin,  194 
Carloman,   brother  of  Charlemagne, 

199 
Carlyle,  18 
Carmelites,  451 
Carmina  Burana,  392,  396 
Carniola,  537-38 
Carolingian  dynasty,  chap,  xi,   219, 

221,  232,  256,  262,  266,  277,  280, 

283,  300,  360,  375 
"Carolingian  Renaissance,"  2I0-II 
Carpathian   Mountains,    li,    17,   42, 

548.  551 
Carrara,  House  of,  580 
Cartagena,  149 
Carthage,  20,  23,  36,  53,  60,  83,  ,93, 

102,  118,  135-36,  143.  178 
Carthusians,  298 
Casimir  the  Great,  King  of  Poland, 

552 


648 


INDEX 


Caspian  Sea,  12,  17,  55-56,  79,  224, 

549-50 
Cassel,  battle  of,  512 
Cassian,  III 

Cassiodorus,  119,  124-26,  163,  211 
Cassius,  413 
Cassius  Dio,  see  Dio 
Castagno,  Andrea  del,  598 
Castiglione,  Baldassare,  594,  596 
Castile,  14,  189,  273,  302-04,  366,  384, 

386,  410,  434,  450,  466,  495,  522, 

537,  566,  574.  630-33 
Castilian  language,  410 
Castle,  239,  246-49,  258-59,  261,  267, 

269-70,  275,  277-78,  290-91,  295, 

320,  328,  337,  348,  365,  379,  404, 

416,  469,  477,  534,  540,  631,  639 
Castle  guard,  242,  494 
Catacombs,  113 
Catalan  language,  272-73,  399 
Catalans,  357 

Catalaunlan  Fields,  battle  of,  85 
Catalonia,  189,  273,  303,  405,  410,  488 
Cataphracti,  135 
Cathari,  442-43,  448,  556 
Cathay,  550,  610 
Cathedral,    187,  212,  264,  297,  408, 

412,  chap,  xxii,  434,  437,  443,  527- 

28,  601-03 
Cathedral  chapter,  292,  298,  437,  458, 

501 
Cathedral  schools,  375-76,  381,  437 
Catherine  of  France,  527 
Cato,  563 
Caucasian  race,  10 
Caucasus,  Gates  of,  79;  Mountains, 

308,  344,  556 
Cecrops,  62,  97 
Celestine  V,  Pope,  503 
Celibacy  of  the  clergy,  283,  292,  375, 

563,  588 
Cellini,  Benvenuto,  598,  613 
Celtic  language,  literature,  and  learn- 
ing, 10, 164,222,397-98,  401,  406-07 
Celts,  10,  40,  42,  164-69,  273,  397, 

406,  487 
Cerdagne,  634 
Ceuta,  135,  188,  608,  633 
Cevennes  Mountains,  12,  17,  88 
Ceylon,  393,  551 
Chalcedon,  150,  177;  Council  of,  108, 

114.  133 
Chalons,  85 

Chambre'des  Comptes,  492 
Champagne,  County  of,  270-71,  313, 

423,  438,  471,  493,  508,  625-26;  fairs 

of,  364,  367,  372,  500 
Chancellor,  English,  296,  458 
Chancery,  Prankish,  202;   Eavarian, 

264;  Bohemian,  552 
Chanson  de  Roland,  200,  402-03 


Chansons   de   geste,    402-04,    406-07, 

409,  414-15 
Chantry  priests,  440 
Chapels,  radiating,  419;  Lady,  430; 

repaired  by  St.  Francis,  449;  Sistine, 

606-07 
Charlemagne,  14,  168,  198-218,  322, 

227-28,  230,  232,  238,  256,  260,  262, 

268,  273,  278,  280,  295,  301,  327, 

341-42,  349,  374,  399,  402-03,  474- 

75,  491-93,  589 
Charles  Martel,  168-69,  179,  190-92, 

194,  196,  198,  206,  241,  402 
Charles  the  Great,  see  Charlemagne 
Charles    the    Bald,     King    of    West 

Franks  and  Emperor,  212-13 
Charles  the  Fat,  King  of  East  Franks 

and  Emperor,  213,  219,  261,  266 
Charles   IV,  Holy    Roman  Emperor, 

533,  539,  541,  552,  559 
Charles  V,  15,  614,  638 
Charles  the  Simple,  King  of  the  West 

Franks,  219 
Charles  IV,  King  of  France,  502 
Charles  V,  the  Wise,  511,  621-22 
Charles  VI,  511,  624-26,  527 
Charles  VII,  51 1, 527-29,  573,  622-24, 

627,  639 
Charles  VIII,  595,  626,  634-36,  640 
Charles  of  Anjou,  brother  of   Louis 

IX,  471-72, 496-97 

Charles  the  Bad,  King  of  Navarre, 
517,  520-22 

Charles  of  Berri,  brother  of  Louis  XI, 
625-26 

Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
616-22,  625-26,  638 

Charles  of  Maine,  626 

Charolais,  634 

Charters,  royal,  205,  240,  480,  490, 
500,  508;  of  Cluny,  300;  of  eman- 
cipation, 329-30;  of  towns,  336,  358, 
361-62,  364,  367,  372;  and  see 
Magna  Carta 

Chartres,  270-71,  363;  school  of,  376, 
378,  393;  cathedral  of,  432 

Chaucer,  Geoflfrey,  298,  400,  516,  562, 

593 
Cheapside,  517 
Chess,  242,  252,  392 
Children,  313,  496,  510,  603,  618,  628; 

and   see   Education,   Exposure  of, 

Family 
Children  of  Israel,  322 
Children's  Crusade,  322,  326,  466 
Chimney,  invention  of,  234,  249,  339, 

388,  543,  587 
China,  20,  34,  40,  48,  56,  58,  180,  183, 

185, 344,  367,  393-94,  548,  550,  557, 
608-10 
Chincilla,  186 


INDEX 


649 


Chindaswind,  King  of  the  West  Goths, 
123 

Chinon,  527-28 

Chios,  148 

Chivalry,  238,  251-53,  403-06,  591; 
of  fourteenth  century,  511,  513 

Choir  stalls,  427,  437 

Christ,  see  Jesus 

Christian,  in  Pilgrim's  Progress,  6 

Christianity,  3,  14-15,  294,  412;  and 
early  Germans,  42,  45,  51,  55;  and 
Roman  Empire,  64,  72,  77,  82,  93, 
chap,  vi;  in  German  states  of  the 
West,  119-20,  123-26,  156;  and 
Islam,  172,  175,  179,  182,  184,  187- 
90,  192,  226;  expansion  of  Christen- 
dom, 200,  202,  218-19,  225,  228, 
chap,  xvi,  537,  544,  546,  608,  630; 
and  the  Mongols,  549;  and  the 
Turks,  554;  and  the  Papacy,  560; 
and  the  Renaissance,  592-93;  and 
see  Church,  Missions,  Monasticism, 
Patristic  Literature,  Art,  Architec- 
ture, etc. 

Christian  Socialism,  616 

Christmas,      14,    208-09,    242,    314, 

375 

Christmas  trees,  45 

Chronicles,  98,  119;  monastic,  163, 
194;  late  Carolingian,  218,  222-23; 
oldest  Russian,  224;  feudal,  253, 
285;  of  crusades,  310;  German,  342, 
538;  of  towns,  340,  371;  world,  412; 
French,  493 

Chronology,  I,  13-14,  376,  531 

Chrysoloras,  591 

Church,  early,  97-116;  Western,  108- 
09,  134,  169,  558;  of  Rome,  15,  102; 
Eastern  or  Greek,  108,  134-35,  150, 
152,  190,  302,  308,  556,  558,  573, 
591;  Russian,  135,  224;  Celtic  or 
Irish,  164-69;  Anglo-Saxon,  167, 
169;  Prankish,  168-69,  210;  in 
North  Africa,  178;  medieval,  78, 
115,  117,  chaps,  rv,  xxii,  xxiii,  563, 
569,  593;  and  feudalism,  244,  251- 
52,  258,  271,  492,  494;  and  divorce, 
253;  and  crusades,  311,  313,  323- 
24;  and  communes,  361;  and  civili- 
zation, 373,  376,  390,  397;  and  the 
Black  Death,  515-16;  and  Renais- 
sance art,  599-601,  605;  at  close 
of  Middle  Ages,  622,  639;  in  Eng- 
land, 275,  293,  296,  474-75,  482, 
487,  525;  of  England,  639;  in  Ger- 
many, 280,  292,  463;  in  Sicily,  470; 
in  France,  or  Gallican,  366,  506, 
573-74,  638;  in  Scandinavia,  546; 
in  Bulgaria,  556;  in  Spain,  574,  631; 
and  see  Coptic,  Jacobites,  Nestor- 
ians.  Papacy,  Reform 


Church  and  State,  25,  72,  77-78,  95- 
97,  105-06,  109,  115,  120,  133-35, 
155,  157.  193-94,  199,  202,  206-07, 
267,  269,  275,  chap.  XV,  376-77, 
477,  chap,  xxiv,  502-07,  562-64, 
582-83,  597,  625;  and  see  Clergy 

Church  Councils  and  Synods,  102, 
106,  120,  156,  167-68,  187,  288-90, 
293,  295,  452,  479,  505,  572-74;  and 
see  Nicaea,  Sardika,  Ephesus, 
Chalcedon,  Constantinople,  Trul- 
lan,  Pavia,  Mainz,  Mantua,  Worms, 
Clermont-Farrand,  Fourth  Lateran, 
Lyons,  Pisa,  Constance,  Basel,  Fer- 
rara,  Florence 

Church  courts,  105,  157,  293-98,  319, 
336,  391,  435,.  437,  446-47,  484,  529; 
and  see  Inquisition 

Church  Fathers,  see  Patristic  litera- 
ture 

Church  property,  241,  243,  246,  281- 
84,  291,  327,  416,  437-38,  452,  454, 
484,  562-64,  572;  and  see  Apostolic 
poverty 

Cicero,  24,  588 

Cid,  Poema  del,  410 

Cilicia,  550 

Cimbri,  42,  53 

Ciompi,  524,  584 

Circe,  83 

"Circles,"  administrative,  615 

Circus  Maximus,  2 

Circus,  games  of,  77,  93-94,  126;  and 
see  Hippodrome 

Cistercians,  298-99,  303,  307-08,  546 

Cities,  see  Towns 

Citizenship,  24,  26,  29,  31,  48,  100, 
362,  369-70,  576,  578 

City  of  God,  The,  chap,  iv,  153, 206, 381 , 
416 

City-state,  24-27,  39,  61,  78, 257,  327- 
28,  341 

Civil  Law,  27,  377,  389 

Civilization,  antiquity  and  history  of, 
3-5;  medieval  decline  and  recovery 
of,  15;  of  Roman  Empire,  20-24; 
nomads  and,  57;  from  classical  to 
Christian,  61,  1 12-15;  Byzaatine, 
148-49,  152-53;  declining,  157,  178; 
monasteries  and,  162-63,  168;  Mo- 
hammedan, 180,  190,  303;  of  later 
Saxon  England,  223;  effect  of  Nor- 
man conquest  upon,  275,  474;  of 
Hungary,  308;  Turks  and,  309;  of 
Italian  cities,  348;  medieval,  373; 
Chinese,  393,  550;  France  the  leader 
in  medieval,  401;  of  thirteenth-cen- 
tury England,  486-87;  decline  of 
medieval,  511,  576;  effect  of  Black 
Death  on,  514-15;  effect  of  Hundred 
Years  War  on,  530;  of  Mongol  in- 


650 


INDEX 


vasions  on,  549,  551;  of  Turks  on, 
554;  of  Hussite  Wars  on,  572;  place 
of  Italian  Renaissance  in  the  history 
of,  586-87 ;  effect  of  voyages  of  dis- 
covery on,  611-12;  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  640 

Clairvaux,  299 

Clan,  273 

Clare,  450 

Clarendon,  see  Constitutions  of 

Classe,  146 

Classical  culture,  21;  passing  of,  61, 
66;  transition  to  Christian,  112; 
"the  classical  heritage,"  114,  124; 
at  Constantinople,  148-49,  152; 
Irish  monks  and,  166;  Charle- 
magne and,  199,  211;  at  school  of 
Chartres,  378,  393;  and  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  578,  586,  588-92,  596- 
98,  603-05 

Clear-story,  146,  420,  425-26,  430-31, 

433 

Clement  IV,  Pope,  389 

Clement  V,  502,  506 

Clement  VII,  565-66 

Clergy,  hierarchy  of,  105,  no;  privi- 
leges, 105,  159,  198,  293;  as  state 
officials,  203,  207;  Charlemagne's 
regulation  of,  206,  210,  214;  mar- 
ried, 283;  and  royal  courts  in  Eng- 
land, 296-98;  secular,  no,  298,  435, 
458;  regular,  see  Monasticism;  and 
townsmen,  327,  464,  494;  and  learn- 
ing. 373~74;  students  as,  391-92; 
satires  on,  392,  409;  medieval,  435- 
39,  454;  anti-clerical  movements, 
442-44,  562-64,  616;  pope  and  local, 
471-72,  482,  496,  506,  560,  572-74; 
in  representative  assemblies,  484, 
488,  494;  King  of  France  and,  491, 
494,  502;  taxation  of,  503;  after 
Black  Death,  516,  523,  525;  in 
Scandinavia,  546;  in  Spain,  574,  631 ; 
in  France,  622-23;  and  see  Celibacy, 
Church,  Marriage,  Priesthood 

Clericis  laicos,  503-04 

Clermont-Farrand,  267,  299,  313,  323, 
326,  438;  Council  of,  311 

Clientage,  Arabian,  181;  Roman,  238- 

39 
Climate,  influence  of,  9,  13,  25,  57; 

Mediterranean,    19;    German,    43; 

Italian,  348 
Clocks,  invention  of,  388,  587 
Clothing,  see  Costume 
Clovis,  88-90,  118,  120-22,  125,  159, 

179,  202,  206,  213,  295 
Cluny,  Abbey  and  Congregation  of, 

281-82,  286,  298-300,  376,  421 
Cnut,  King  of  England,  275,  277 
Coats  of  Arms,  see  Heraldry 


Coblenz,  366 

Cochin-China,  393 

Code  or  Codex  of  Justinian,  142;  Re- 
vised, 143 

Code,  see  Theodosian;  for  other  codes 
of  law  see  Assizes  of  Jerusalem,  Las 
Siete  Partidas 

Coeur,  Jacques,  622 

Coimbra,  County  of,  303 

Coinage,  4,  44,  49,  149,  184,  204,  224; 
feudal,  256,  263,  269;  320,  351,  355, 
369,  485,  497;  depreciation  of,  500- 
01,  520,  546;  533,  583,  591 

Colleges,  392 

Collegiate  churches,  418,  437 

Colleoni  monument,  604,  606 

Cologne,  88,  334,  368,  398,  543;  Arch- 
bishop of,  264-65,  287,  462,  532, 
621;  cathedral  of,  430,  432;  univer- 
sity of,  390 

Coloni,  37,  67-68,  73,  93,  233 

Colonization,  20-21,  26,  53,  225,  305- 
09,  328,  336,  363, 435. 532, 537. 544, 
552,  569.  572,  611,  632 

Colonna,  House  of,  503,  505-06,  568 

Color,  148,  427,  520,  604-06;  and  see 
Dyes 

Colosseum,  600 

Columba,  St.,  166,  168 

Columban,  St.,  159,  166,  168-69 

Columbus,  Christopher,  223,  395, 
609-13 

Columns,  Greek,  21;  Roman,  32-33, 
73;  Byzantine,  145,  212;  Roman- 
esque, 420-22;  Gothic,  425-26; 
Renaissance,  600 

Comitatus,  49-50,  239 

Commedia,  see  Divine  Comedy 

Commendation,  93,  123,  238-39,  255, 

329  . 

Commentaries,  patristic,  157,  168; 
Arabian,  182-83;  on  Roman  Law, 
377;  scholastic,  382,  385,  393 

Commerce,  2,  12;  ancient,  4,  20,  25; 
Roman,  32,  34-35,  44,  60;  Byzan- 
tine, 149,  152;  Arabian,  173,  175- 
76,  183-86;  early  medieval,  192, 
237,  327;  of  the  Northmen,  217, 
220,  224-25;  revival  of,  263,  306, 
313,  319720,  322,  324-25,  chaps, 
xvii,  xviii,  xix,  342-46,  393-94,  409, 
434,  442,  465, 467-69,  480,  485, 487, 
494,  498-99,  501-02,  514-15,  519, 
523, 542-44,  546,  550,  552,  558, 577, 
581-84,  607-09,  611-12,  616-17, 
630,  633,  637;  and  see  Business, 
Shipping,  Trade  routes 

Common  lands,  236,  616 

Common  law,  English,  298,  475-78, 
481,  486,  489-90,  492,  629 

Common  Pleas,  Court  of,  476 


INDEX 


651 


Commons,  House  of,  477,  483-86,  501, 
522-23,  564 

Communes,  defined,  335,  360;  Italian, 
346-59,  363,  368,  389,  410-11,  463- 
64,  467-70,  473,  576-77;  French, 
357-63,  490-91,  494,  500-01;  Flem- 
ish, 498;  and  civilization,  397,  417; 
of  Netherlands,  617 

Communication,  156-57,  203,  233; 
and  see  Roads,  Travel 

Communion  in  both  kinds,  see  Utra- 
quists 

Comnenian  dynasty,  310,  465 

Companies,  see  Mercenaries 

Compass,  see  Mariner's 

Compensation,  see  Wergeld 

Compiegne,  366,  521,  529 

Compilations,  Byzantine,  148;  Ara- 
bian, 183;  early  medieval,  I25;med- 
ieval,  397 

Compostella,  188-89,  366,  456,  492 

Concentric  churches,  145,  147,  419 

Conceptualists,  380 

Conciliar  movement,  572-74 

Concordat  of  Bologna,  638 

Concordat  of  Worms,  291 

Condottieri,  576-77,  580 

Conductor es,  37 

Conferences,  of  Cassian,  ill 

Confessions,  of  Augustine,  96 

Confession,  440-41,  495 

Confirmation,  439,  564 

Congo  River,  609 

Congregation  of  Cluny,  see  Cluny 

Conrad  I,  King  of  the  East  Franks, 
227-28,  262 

Conrad  II,  Holy  Roman  Emperor, 
271,  285,  298 

Conrad  III,  320 

Conrad  IV,  son  of  Frederick  II,  323, 
470 

Conradin,  470-71 

Consolamentum,  443 

Consolation  of  Philosophy,  124-25, 222 

Consortorie,  348 

Constance,  Council  of,  540,  667-69, 

572-73,  589. 
Constance,  heiress  of  Sicily,  461 
Constance,  Lake  of,  88,  167,  542 
Constance,  Peace  of,  353,  468 
Constantine    the    Great,    66,    71-72, 

104-06,  142,  233,  263 
Constantine,  usurper  in  Britain  and 

Gaul,  79 
Constantine  VI,  Byzantine  Emperor, 

207 
Constantine    VII,    Porphyrogennetos, 

229 
Constantinople,  14,  71,  73,  76,  78-80, 

82-87,  90,  105,  121,  124,  chap,  viii, 

154,   175-77,   179,   184,   196,  209, 


224,  229,  268,  271,  308-10,  314-15, 
321-24,  327,  341,  343,  375,  465-66, 
548,  553-58,  583,  590-91;  Councils 
of,  134,  283,  452;  Patriarch  of,  107- 
09,  156-57,  190,  195,  302,  466 
Constantinus  Africanus,  376-77,  379, 

384 
Constantius  III,  Roman  Emperor,  81- 

83  . 

Constitutional  history,  see  Adminis- 
tration, Assemblies,  Councils, 
Courts,  Government,  Kings,  Law 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  296-98 

Consuls,  Roman,  69,  86,  121;  Byzan- 
tine, 141;  of  medieval  towns,  347, 
351-54,  357-58,  377 

Contract,  feudal  idea  of,  258 

Contracts,  294 

Convivio,  411 

Copenhagen,  University  of,  546 

Coptic,  Church,  109, 177-78;  language, 
407 

Corbeil,  497 

Corbels,  247-48,  422 

Cordova,  180,  182,  185-86,  188-89, 
200,  227,  302,  304,  309,  328 

Corfu,  466 

Corinth,  79;  Isthmus  of,  139 

Cornhill,  516 

Cornice,  600 

Cornish  dialect,  398 

Cornwall,  398,  496,  537 

Coronation,  of  Charlemagne,  208-09, 
212,  215;  of  other  emperors,  209-10, 
261-62,  289,  350,  541,  548,  603;  of 
the  Dukes  of  Aquitaine,  272;  of 
Peter  II  of  Aragon,  455 

Corpus  luris,  143 

Corsica,  118,  135-36,  I55.  287,  313 

Cortes,  Spanish,  488-89,  631 

Cosmogony,  Dante's,  412-13 

Coster,  594 

Costume,  12,  38,  43,  114,  126,  147, 
161,  173,  186,  188,  253,  320,  334, 
336, 364-65. 392, 449, 496, 603, 605, 
607,  623-24;  and  see  Vestments 

Cotton,  186 

Councils,  of  chiefs  among  early  Ger- 
mans, 48;  Grand  or  Great,  in  Ital- 
ian cities,  347;  in  French  towns, 
357-60;  in  Flemish  towns,  365; 
English  Great,  481-83;  English 
Privy,  492;  French,  of  State,  492; 
of  regency,  494;  of  state  and  finance 
in  Spain,  631;  Venetian,  of  Ten, 
581-82;  of  Forty,  581;  Great  or 
Grand,  581,  634 

Count  and  County,  186,  193,  203,  205, 
219,  221,  259,  264,  341,  346,  351, 
364-65,  438, 488, 498-99  ,  507,  512- 
13,  524-25,  534,  624 


652 


INDEX 


Courland,  184 

Court  attendance,  242-43,  251,  257, 
481,  491 

Court  ceremonial  officials,  202,  262, 
268,  277,  491,  533 

Court  ceremony  and  etiquette,  70, 
131,  148,  242,  268,  435,  617 

Court  life  of  southern  France,  404-06; 
of  Italian  Renaissance,  580,  587 

Courtesy,  403 

Courtier,  The  Book  of  the,  594,  596 

Courtly  epic,  406 

Courts  of  law,  see  Admiralty,  Church, 
Feudal,  Folk,  Gilds,  Hundred,  Im- 
perial, Inquisition,  Law,  Manorial, 
Papal,  Royal,  Shire,  Towns,  Vehm 

Courtrai,  battle  of,  499,  512 

Cracow,  549;  university  of,  552 

Crecy,  battle  of,  613-14,  517,  519, 
522,  526,  622 

Credi,  Lorenzo  di,  606 

Cremona,  352,  468 

Crenelation,  247 

Crete,  4,  19-20,  226,  308,  465 

Crimea,  55,  344 

Criminous  clerks,  296-98 

Critical  attitude  in  historv,  6-8,  597- 
98 

Croatia  and  Croats,  151-52,  229,  308 

Crossbow,  514 

Cross,  holy,  150-51,  321;  sign  of,  loi, 
158;  "taking  the,"  311 

Cruciform  churches,  419-20 

Cruelty,  ancient,  32,  38;  Visigothic, 
121;  Byzantine,  195-96,  308,  342; 
of  Northmen,  216,  218;  Bulgarian, 
229;  feudal,  251,  447-48;  of  Timur, 
557;  of  Italian  despots,  577-78 

Crusades,  16,  190,  225,  260,  299,  301, 
310-26,  346,  349,  363,  405,  417,  435, 

444,  463.  465-69,  483,  494-95,  537. 
546,  554,  612;  against  the  Ottoman 
Turks,  556,  558,  574,  622;  against 
the  Hussites,  570-71 

Crusading  Orders,  see  Military  Or- 
ders 

Crypt,  420 

Ctesiphon,  177,  184 

Cube,  The,  see  Kaaba 

Culmbach,  540 

Culture,  see  Civilization,  Classical 

Curiales   (or,  Decurions),  26,  66-67, 

73 

Curia,  see  Papal  court 

Curia  regis,  268,  277 

Customs,  surviving  from  earlier  peri- 
ods, 4;  power  of,  among  early  Ger- 
mans, 48-49;  "college,"  392;  vari- 
ety of  medieval  local,  371,  474-75, 
508,  617,  632 

Customs  duties,  258,  263,  333,  335- 


36,  343,  345,  351,  358,  366,  467, 

521,  608 
Cyclades,  367 
Cyprian,  102 

Cyprus,  19-20,  177,  308,  321,  453 
Cyrene,  106 
Czechs,  216,  228,  390,  552,  570 

Dacia,  54-55,  151 

Dagobert,  King  of  the  Franks,  167, 

192-93 
Dalmatia,  69,  118,  136,  138,  151,  209, 

308,  445,  453,  583;  Archbishop  of, 
^157 

Dalriada,  Kingdom  of,  166 
Damascus,   150,   180,   182,  319,  344, 

557 
Damasus,  Pope,  107 
Damietta,  322 
Damme,  367 
Danelaw,  220-21 
Danegeld,  275,  277 
Danes,    199,   202,   217,   220-22,   226, 

275,  305,  474;  and  see  Denmark 
Dante,  410-15,   432,   560,   562,   576, 

586-88,  593,  598,  601;  quoted,  503 
Danube  River,  12,  17,  23,  43,  53-55, 

75-76,  80,  84-85,  138-40,  151, 228- 

29,  309,  548,  554 
Dardanelles,  54 
Dates,  in  history,  13;  of  French  and 

English  kings,  511 
Dauphin,  519-21,  526-28,  620,  623 
Dauphine,  271,  519,  620,  624 
David,  of  Donatello,  603-04 
Deacon,  100,  105,  154,  286,  562 
Dean,  437,  484 
Decameron,  593 
Deccan,  394 

Decius,  Roman  Emperor,  54 
Decorated  architecture,  431 
Decretum  of  Gratian,  378 
Decurions,  see  Curiales 
Defensor  pads,  561-62,  575 
Defensores,  73 
Degrees,  see  Academic 
De  hcBretico  comburendo,   statute  of, 

565 

Delhi,  556 

Demesne,  236,  344,  477,  486 

Democracy,  360,  362,  524,  570,  577, 
584,  618;  and  see  Communes,  Gov- 
ernment, People 

Democritus,  22 

De  monarchia,  412 

Demons,  33,  65,  97,  158,  160,  379-8o, 
412,  429 

Demosthenes,  21,  24 

Denmark,  40,  85,  218,  275,  287,  369, 
398,  455,  460,  488,  532,  543-47 

Deposition  of  rulers,  of  popes,  285, 


INDEX 


653 


289,  567-68,  573;  by  popes,  288-90, 
459.  470;  of  the  Byzantine  Em- 
peror by  crusaders,  465;  of  English 
kings,  459,  485,  525,  628;  of  Holy 
Roman  Emperors  by  the  electors, 
533.  538-39;  and  see  Charles  the 
Fat,  and  Miran  Mirza 

Desiderius,  King  of  the  Lombards, 
199-200 

Despots,  Italian,   411,    576-80,  584- 

85,  590.  596,  598,  635 

Devil,  64,  109,  528;  and  see  Demons, 
Lucifer,  Robert  the  Devil 

De  vulgari  eloquentia,  411 

Dialectic,  379-80,  383 

Dialogues,  of  Gregory  the  Great,  158 

Diaz,  Bartholomew,  609 

Dice,  252,  392 

Dictatus,  288 

Dictionaries,  590-91 

Dienstrecht,  279 

Dies  IrcB,  392 

Diet,  geography  and,  12;  Roman,  34, 
37-38;  early  German,  44,  126;  of 
nomads,  56;  of  Slavs,  139;  at  Con- 
stantinople, 149;  monastic,  l6l, 
175,  206;  Mohammedan,  175,  186; 
Charlemagne's,  199;  feudal,  249; 
on  Fridays,  543-44;  Michelangelo's, 
606-07 

Diet,  German,  or  Reichstag,  636,  615; 
and  see  Roncaglia 

Digest  of  Justinian,  142,  377,  589 

Dinan,  340 

Dinant,  618 

Dio  Cassius,  quoted,  68-69 

Diocese,  437 

Diocletian,   Roman  Emperor,  70-71, 

86,  131,  435 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  211 

Dionysius  Exiguus,  14 

Diplomacy,  29,    138,   493,  498,  550, 

554.  559.  578.  583-85.  594.  614.  632, 

634 
Disease,  38,   154,  322,  495;  and  see 

Health,  Medicine,  Plague 
Dispensation,  papal,  561 
Distraint  of  Knighthood,  486 
Divination,  33,  45,  97,  106,  183 
Divine  Comedy,  412-15,  586 
Divorce,  200,  253,  285,  294,  460,  492 
Dnieper  River,  17 
Dobrzin,  Knights  of,  544 
Doge  of  Venice,  341-44,  465,  580-8^; 

palace  of,  599 
Domain,  see  Demesne  and  Royal 
Dome,  143-44,  147.  419.  421-22,  599- 

601,  613 
Domesday  Book,  277,  367,  477 
Domestic  animals,  139 
Dominic,  St.,  448-61 


Dominicans,  448,  451,  634 

Domremy,  529 

Don  River,  17,  58,  548-50 

Donatello,  603-04 

Donation  of  Constantine,  197-98,  214, 
280,  593 

Donation  of  Pepin,  197,  200 

Donjon,  of  the  castle,  247 

Douai,  356-66,  498 

Dover,  514 

Drama,  25,  65,  374-75.  409.  593.  602 

Drawbridge,  248 

Dreams,  69,  408,  517 

Dresden,  307 

Dress,  see  Costume 

Dreux,  267 

Drinking,  in  antiquity,  37-38;  early 
German,  43,  45;  forbidden  by 
Mohammed,  175;  at  Cordova  and 
Almeria,  186;  by  Charlemagne, 
199;  of  monks,  175,  206;  feudal, 
249;  of  medieval  students,  391-92; 
in  Beowulf,  400;  by  St.  Louis,  495; 
by  Wenzel,  539 

Dublin,  487 

Ducat,  583 

Duke,  135,  156,  169,  193,  196,  203, 
221,  227,  259,  262,  264,  341,  351, 
488,  534,  624  ,  .      .    V, 

Dungeons,  feudal,  249;  of  Louis  XI, 
624 

Durazzo,  314 

Durham  Cathedral,  423 

Dutch  language,  398-99 

Dutch  people,  544,  612 

Dutch  towns,  365,  371-72 

Duumvirs  (duumviri  or  duoviri),  26 

Dwarf  gallery,  421-22,  428 

Dwelling,  see  House 

Dyes,  388,  469 

Dynasties,  see  Abbassids,  Anjou, 
Capetian,  Carolingian,  Comnenian, 
Fatimite,  Hapsburg,  Hohenstaufen, 
Jagellons,  Lancastrian,  Macedon- 
ian, Merovingian,  Ommiads,  Plan- 
tagenet,  Theodosian,  etc. 

Ealdorman,  221,  276 

Earl,  276-77,  481,  484 

Early  English  architecture,  430-31, 

487 
Earthquakes,  87,  143 
East  Anglia,  220 
Eastern  Church,  see  Church 
Easter,  14,  167,  199,  264,  375,  468 
East  Franks,  189,  213,  227,  261-62, 

305.  399 
East  Goths,  55,  75-76,  79,  87,  Chap. 

vii,  128,  136,  140 
East  Indies,  393 
East  Prussia,  544,  "546,  552 


654 


INDEX 


Ecclesiastical  courts,  see  Church 
courts 

Ecclesiastical  History,  of  Bede,  159, 
168,  171 

Ecclesiastical  States,  264,  269,  467, 
534.  618 

Economic  conditions,  5;  Roman,  30- 
31,  33-37,  39,  66,  70-71;  medieval, 
123, 203, 212, 217-18,  312,  469,  572, 
576,  587,  594,  614,  616,  631-33;  and 
see  Business,  Capital,  Commerce, 
Industry,  Interest,  etc. 

Eddas,  42,  46,  217,  400 

Eden,  Garden  of,  413 

Edessa,  316,  318,  320 

Edgar  the  Peaceful,  King  of  England, 
221,  275 

Edict  of  Theodoric,  122 

Edmund,  son  of  Henry  III  of  Eng- 
land, 470,  482 

Edrisi,  382-84,  393-94 

Education,  American,  7;  Spartan,  25; 
of  Mithridates,  54;  of  Augustine, 
96,  114;  early  Christian,  113;  early 
medieval,  124,  133;  of  Justin  and 
Justinian,  128;  of  a  Gothic  prince, 
136;  of  Gregory  the  Great,  154; 
monastic,  163-64;  moral,  by  Peni- 
tentials,  169;  Mohammedan,  181, 
185,  188;  Charlemagne  and,  210, 
214-15;  feudal,  252;  at  Cluny, 
281;  of  Gregory  VII,  286;  Cister- 
cians and,  298;  crusades  and,  324; 
medieval,  374-92;  by  vernacular 
literature,  408;  of  Dante,  411;  of 
Frederick  II,  468;  of  Philip  Augus- 
tus, 493;  of  St.  Louis,  495;  of  his 
children,  496;  of  William  Langland, 
516;  of  Joan  of  Arc,  527,  529;  of 
Spanish  clergy,  574;  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  592;  effect  of  printing 
on,  594;  of  Charles  V,  638;  and  see 
Learning,  Universities 

Edward  the  Confessor,  King  of  Eng- 
land, 275-76,  474 

Edward  I,  King  of  England,  483-89, 

499,  503-04,  5",  538 
Edward  II,  484-85,  488-89,  499 
Edward  III,  484-85,  511-14,  517-18, 

525,  563,  628 
Edward  IV,  511,  530,618,621,  628- 

30 
Egbert,  King  of  the  West  Saxons,  202, 

220 
Egypt,  3,  19-23,  28-29,  34-35,  60-61, 
63-64,  70;  Christian,  109-10,  149- 
51;  Mohammedan,  177-78,  180, 
183-84,  190,  318,  321-22,  358,  365, 
549,  557,  609;  modern,  191;  and  see 
Coptic 
Einhard,  199,  209 


Elbe  River,  ir,  17,  202,  209,  216,218, 
228,  305,  307,  398 

Eleanor,  Duchess  of  Aquitaine,  278, 
457,  492 

Elections,  of  early  German  kings,  49; 
ecclesiastical,  120,  134,  291-92, 
295,  456-59,  463,  471,  573;  papal, 
207-08,  285-87,  299,  352,  434,  503, 
505-06,  565-68;  imperial,  290,  462, 
532-33,  537-40,  615;  of  doge  of 
Venice,  342,  344;  of  other  Italian 
magistracies,  347,  581-85;  in  towns 
north  of  the  Alps,  357,  365,  370;  of 
kings  in  Scandinavia  and  central 
Europe,  488-89,  546,  551-53,  571, 

615 

Electors,  Seven,  532-33,  538 

Elements,  63,  379,  388 

Ely  Cathedral,  423 

Emancipation,  67,  187,  255,  327-31, 
335,  344,  347,  352,  358,  361,  370, 
372,  516 

Emir,  180,  318,  321 

Emperor  worship,  29-30,  62,  72,  103, 
106,  115,  435 

Empires,  see  Alexander  the  Great, 
Attila,  Byzantine,  Charlemagne, 
Prankish,  Holy  Roman,  Latin, 
Mohammedan,  Mongol,  Roman 

Enamels,  Byzantine,  147;  of  Limoges, 
366 

Encyclopaedias,  24,  125,  148 

Engineering,  Roman,  32,  35;  Byzan- 
tine, 185;  Renaissance,  605-06 

England,  12,  16,  29;  early  history,  85, 
159-60,  164,  167,  202,  206,  210, 
220-23,  225-26;  feudal,  235,  241- 
42,  246,  261,  270,  274-78,  283,  287, 
292-93,  295,  297-98,  312,  314, 321 ; 
towns  and,  328,  330-31, .33^,  352, 
358,  366-68;  medieval  civilization 
in,  383-84,  387,  389,  398-400,  406, 
409,  423,  430;  national  develop- 
ment, 434,  436,  444,  448,  450,  457- 
60,  466,  470,  472,  chap.  XXV,  490, 
492-501,  503,  506,  508,  chap,  xxvii, 
532-33,  537,  543-44,  556,  560,  562- 
63,  565-66,  568,  593,  595,  609,  612, 
614,  618,  623,  627-30,  632-34,  637, 
639-40;  and  see  Britain 

English  Channel,   12,   166,  226,  267, 

297,  475,  487,  514,  530 
English  language,   7,   222,  399,   474, 

563 
English  literature,  400,  487,  516;  and 

see  Anglo-Saxon 
Entertainment,  right  of,  243 
Enzio,  470 

Ephesus,  "Robber  Council"  of,  108 
Ephthalites,  140 
Epic  poetry,  400-01,  406-07 


INDEX 


655 


Epicureans,  62 

Epirus,  79,  554 

Equestrian  statues,  604 

Erfurt,  University  of,  390 

Eric,  King  of  Sweden,  218 

Erigena,  see  John  of  Ireland 

Erythrean  sibyl,  1 14 

Erzerum,  550 

Escheat,  241,  253,  354,  491 

Esquire,  252,  486 

Estates,  488,  490,  494,  500;  provin- 
cial, 501-02,  519-21,  627;  of  Lan- 
guedoc,  501 

Estates-General,  498,  501-02,  504, 
519-21,  527,  538,  622-23,  625,  627 

Este,  House  of,  580 

Esthonia,  184,  544,  547 

Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  164 

Ethelred  II,  King  of  England,  478 

Ethics,  22,  389 

Etymologies  of  Isidore,  125,  127 

Euboea,  465 

Eucharist,  loi,  569;  and  see  Mass 

Euclid,  383 

Eudes,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  179 

Eudes  II,  Count  of  Bloisand  Chartres, 
270 

Eugenius,  Roman  Emperor,  78 

Eugenius  IV,  Pope,  573 

Eugippius,  116 

Euphrates,  3,  184,  308,  316,  318;  and 
see  Tigris- Euphrates 

Euric,  King  of  the  West  Goths,  118, 
122 

Euripides,  65,  98-99 

Europe,  10-12,  14-17,  19,  24,  30,  40, 
58,  71,  75,  114,  166,189-91,  230, 
233-34,  245-46,  260-62,  282,  287, 
303, 308, 318, 330,  335,  341-42,  352, 
367,  375.  377.  390,  393-95.  397- 
99,  405.  434,  443.  448,  45 1.  455. 
466,  469,  474-75,  489,  514-15,  546, 
549. 554.  556,  558-59,  566,  573,  576, 
583,  585,  587-88,  594,  608,  610-12, 
614,  621,  632,  637-38 

Europe,  central,  140,  233,  355,  548 

Europe,  eastern,  12,  139,  314,  466, 
chap,  zxix 

Europe,  northern,  376,  583 

Europe,  southern,  546 

Europe,  western,  27,  72,  152,  161, 
164,  190,  223,  233,  261,  269,  301, 
308-12,322,  325,355,  373,  377,  397, 
419,  430,  434,  459,  488,  532,  543, 
546,  549-50,  561,  614,  633 

Evidence,  205,  446-47,  477 

Exarch  and  Exarchate,  135-36;  and 
see  Ravenna 

Exchequer,  492;  Court  of  the,  476 

Excommunication,  108,  288-91,  293, 
297,  302,  314.  352,  441,  444,  447, 


458-60,  463-65,  467-70,  505-06, 
562,  568 

Exile,  291,  348,  411,  578 

Experiment,  13,388-89,397,  419,  598, 
604,  606 

Exploration,  see  Geography  and  Voy- 
ages of  discovery 

Exports,  from  France  forbidden,  503 

Exposure  of  infants,  38,  46,  175 

Extreme  unction,  439,  564 

Eyck,  Van,  604 

Eyeglasses,  invention  of,  388,  587 

Ezekiel,  Book  of,  381 

Ezzelino,  473 

Fabliaux,  408-10,  414-15,  426,  515 

Fagade,  cathedral,  Romanesque,  421- 
22;  Gothic,  428-29;  Early  English, 
430;  Italian  Gothic,  431;  Renais- 
sance, 600 

Fairs,  327,  364,  366-68,  372,  500 

False  Decretals,  280 

Fame,  love  of,  578 

Family,  31,  46,  48,  57,  338-39,  346, 
348,  464,  560,  630 

Family  names,  origin  of,  324 

Famine,  187,  312-13,  316 

Faroe  Islands,  220,  395 

Fatimites,  dynasty  of,  180,  188,  229, 
318,  321 

Favorites,  royal,  482-83,  485,  497, 
519,  522-23,  527,  623 

Fealty,  see  Fidelity,  oath  of 

Federigo,  King  of  Naples,  636;  and 
see  Montefeltro 

Fehm,  see  Vehm 

Fenestration,  see  Windows 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Aragon,  574,  630- 
34,  636-38,  640 

Ferrara,  352,  580,  593,  603;  Council 
of,  573,  591 

Ferrante  I,  King  of  Naples,  586,  634- 

35 

Ferrante  II,  635 

Festivals,  see  Amusements 

Fetish  worship,  45 

Feud,  52,  172,  263,  348,  534,  628 

Feudal  aids,  243,  257,  477,  480-81 

Feudal  courts  and  law,  242,  256,  259, 
268-69,  275,  277-79,  294,  319,  336, 
475-76,488,  491,497,507 

Feudalism,  181,  chaps,  xiii,  xiv,  280, 
295,  301,  309,  370,  434,  469-70; 
Church  and,  281-85,  287,  291-93, 
302,  438,  441,  444-45,  455-56,  459- 
61,  464,  467,  499;  crusades  and, 
311-12,  314-15,  319,  321,  324-25. 
417,  466;  towns  and,  327-30,  335. 
346-48, 350, 354;  literature  and,  379, 
397,  401-04,  407;  in  France,  357- 
64.   490-502,   504,  507-08,  512-14, 


656 


INDEX 


520-21,  528,  623-24;  in  Nether- 
lands, 617;  in  England,  chap,  xxv, 
523;  in  Germany,  534,  536-37, 
541,  552,  615,  620 

Feudal  register,  255,  271 

Feudal  states,  chap,  xiv,  472,  507;  and 
see  Feudalism 

Fidelity,  oath  of,  242,  255,  280,  293, 

315,  455-56 

Fief,  241-46,  333;  and  see  Feudalism 

Finance,  see  Banking,  Business, 
Chambre  des  Comples,  Exchequer, 
Taxation 

Finns,  11,  40,  224 

Finland,  Gulf  of,  546 

Fire  company,  Roman,  35 

Firmicus  Maternus,  Julius,  69-70,  106 

First  Crusade,  311-18,  376-77,  440 

Fisheries,  19,  342,  369,  543-44:  and 
see  Purple 

Flamen,  4,  115 

Flamininus,  Titus,  2 

Flanders,  167,  227,  269-70,  275,  314, 
321,  358,  364-67,  423,  442,  448,  458, 
485,  491,  493-94.  498-99,  501,  503, 
512-14,  521,  524-25,  531,  543.  .566, 
604,  616-17;  and  see  Flemings, 
Flemish 

Fleets,  see  Shipping 

Flemings,  260,  306,  308,  434;  and  see 
Flanders 

Flemish  language,  119,  269,  398 

Flemish  origin  of  Reynard  the  Fox,  407 

Flemish  painting,  604 

Flemish  towns,  364-67,  372,  514,  524, 
618 

Florence,  334,  340,  354-55,  371,  410, 
435,  524.  578,  584-85,  587-88,  590- 
91.  593-94.  596,  598,  599,  601-05, 
607,  610,  634,  636-38;  Council  of, 
573,  591 

Florent,  St.,  274 

Florentines,  see  Florence 

Flying  buttress,  424-26,  428,  431,  433, 

435 
Folk-courts,  50,  203-05 
Folk-lore,  307,  397 
Font,  baptismal,  423,  539 
Fontenay,  213 
Food,  see  Diet 

Food-supply,  583;  and  see  Grain 
Fools,  see  Jesters 
Forest  Cantons,  541-42,  547 
Forest  rights,  485;  and  see  Hunting 
Forfeiture,  241,  253 
Fornovo,  Battle  of,  636 
Forum,  33 
Foulques  Nerra,  274 
Fourth  Crusade,  409,  453,  464-66,  553 
Fourth    Lateran    Council,   436,   440, 

452-53,  466 


France,  geography,  11-12;  14,  16,  19, 

23.  33.  39.  85,  114,  218,  219,  269;  in 
feudal  period,  225,  235,  241,  245-46, 
250,  260-61,  266,  269-75,  279-80, 
286,  292-93,  297-99;  towns  of,  303, 
308,  311-14,  320-22,  324,  327-28, 
331,  333,  339.  352,  357-58,  363, 
365-67,  369,  372;  medieval  culture 
of,  389,  393,  399,  401,  408-09,  417, 
424,  430-31 ;  further  history  of,  437, 
444-45.  450,  457.  459-6o,  464,  466, 
471-72,  479,  483,  488,  chaps,  xxvi, 
xxvii,  532,  538,  541,  556,  560-^1, 
566,  568,  573-74,  586;  spread  of 
Renaissance  to,  595,  606,  614,  616, 
618-27,  630,  632-40;  and  see  Gaul, 
French 
France,  central,  314,  333,  358,  444,  501 
France,  northern,  271,  314,  359,  363- 
64,  383,  399,  402-03,  405-06,  423, 
438,  442,  444,  464,  498,  501,  521, 

524 
"France,"  restricted  medieval  sense 

of  the  word,  266,  627 
France,  southern,  10,  19,  33,  88,  147, 

218,  246,  260,  271-72,  303,  314,  323, 

333,  336,  357-58,  360,  399,  402-05, 

410,  421-22,  442-44.  450-51.  454, 

456,  492,  495,  501,  510,  522,  530, 

570 
Franche      Comte,      see      Burgundy, 

County  of 
Francis  I,  King  of  France,  634,  638 
Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi,  448-52,  454, 

495,  561,  602 
Franciscans,    448,    450-51;    and    see 

Spiritual 
Franconia,  227,  262,  539 
Frankish  Church,  168-69 
Prankish  Empire,  224,  256,  261,  474, 

477 

Frankish  principalities  in  Greece,  553 

Franks,  54,  77,  81,  84,  88-90,  chap, 
vii,  136,  140,  149,  156-57,  159,  164, 
167-71,  179,  190,  chap,  xi,  219,  222, 
232,  238,  272-73,  402;  and  see 
East,  West,  Ripuarians,  Salians 

Fraticelli,  561 

Frederick  I,  er  Barbarossa,  Holy 
Roman  Emperor,  297,  321,  349-54, 
356,  362,  368,  377,  461-62,  468, 470 

Frederick  H,  322-23,  368,  384,  389, 
410,  461-63,  467-73,  538,  544, 577 

Frederick  HI,  540-41,  548,  614-15, 
620,  639 

Frederick  HI,  Count  of  Hohenzollern, 
540 

Frederick  VI,  Count  of  Hohenzollern, 
540 

Frederick  of  Austria,  539 

Frederick  of  Tyrol,  568 


INDEX 


657 


Free  cities,  368,  534,  536,  615 

Freedmen,  41,  52 

Freedom,  21,  217,  307,  327,  330,  335: 
and  see  Emancipation 

Freeholders,  477-78,  486 

Freemen,  47-48,  169-70,  217-18,  221, 
238,  480-81,  534,  617;  and  see  Citi- 
zenship 

Freiberg,  306 

Freiburg  Cathedral,  432 

French  invasions  of  Italy,  614,  633— 
38,  640 

French  language,  119,  21 1,  260j  269, 

272,  399-400.  423,  474,  487,  510, 

562 
French  literature,  401-09,  493 
French  Revolution,  521 
Frescoes,  113, 432,  597,  599 ;  of  Giotto, 

601;  of  Masaccio,  602 
Freshmen,  392 
Friars,  393,  448-52,  454,  486-87,  562- 

63,  634-35 

Friezes,  25,  66,  600,  603 

Frisia,  167-69,  194,  213,  270,  39S,  488 

Friuli,  156,  171,  203,  265 

Froissart,  513 

Frontiers,  Roman,  29,  40,  43,  53, 
chap,  v;  Byzantine,  138;  Frankish, 
192,  198,  200,  202,  209,  218;  others, 
305,  308-09,  435,  620,  638 

Fulda,  264 

Fulk  the  Black,  Count  of  Anjou,  274 

Fulk  V,  275 

Funeral  monuments,  604 

Funerals,  41,  335-36 

Furniture,  234,  338 

Future  life,  see  Immortality 

Gabelle,  499,  501 

Gabriel,  angel,  175 

Gaelic,  398 

Gaeta,  341 

Gaetano,  Peter,  503 

Gaiseric,    King  of  the  Vandals,   83, 

119-20 
Galen,  23,  385,  589 
Galerius,  Roman  Emperor,  104 
Galicia,  in  central  Europe,  551-52 
Galicia,  in  Spain,  273,  304,  410 
Galla  Placidia,  82-84,  129,  147 
Gallican,  see  Church 
Gallic  language,  398 
Gallipoli,  556 

Gallo-Romans,  122,  198,  213,  272 
Gama,  Vasco  da,  611-13,  633 
Gargoyles,  429,  433 
Garonne  River,  12,  17,  218,  272 
Gascony,  272-73,  278,  367,  434,  485, 

497.  506,  508,  517-18 
Castaldo,  344 
Gattamelata,  604 


Gaul,  29,  34,  39-43.  52,  54.  75.  78-79, 
81-86,  88-93,  111-12,  115,  chap, 
vii,  149.  155.  157.  159-60,  166-69, 
171, 179, 196, 223, 227-28,  278,  283, 
328,  375-76,  383,  398,_  402 

Gauzelin,  Bishop  of  Paris,  219 

Gelimer,  King  of  the  Vandals,  135 

Genealogies,  324 

Genoa,  313,  318-19,  321,  341,  343-45. 
353.  394.  467. 470,  514,  553-54,  566, 
583,  609,  636-37 

Geoffrey  Martel,  Count  of  Anjou,  274 

Geoffrey  the  Fair,  Count  of  Anjou, 
275.  278,  384 

Geoffrey,  brother  of  King  John  of 
England,  457 

Geography,  i;  of  Europe,  11-12,  17; 
and  history,  12-13;  of  Roman  Em- 
pire, 19,  39;  of  Gaul,  88-89;  Frank- 
ish, 215;  of  southern  France,  271- 
72;  of  Venice,  342-43;  influence  of, 
24,  56,  232,  258,  260;  study  of,  183, 
188,  224,  383-84,  386,  550,  591, 
610-11;  exploration  and  discovery, 

393-95,  587,  633 
Geology,  i 
Geometry,  124 
George,  see  Podiebrad,  George  of,  and 

St.  George,  of  Donatello 
Gepidse,  140,  150 
Gerbert,  375-76,  396 
German-American,  6 
German  Empire,  modern,  40,  540 
Germania  of  Tacitus,  41 
German  kingdoms  in  the  West,  chap. 

vii 
German  language,   53,    119,  398-99, 

552 
German  law,  early,  4,  41-42,  48-49, 

50-52,    119,    122-23,    169-70,  204, 

294,  535 

German  literature,  42,  44,  401,  405- 
07,  409,  415 

Germans  and  Germany,  geography, 
lo-ii,  14-15;  early,  33,  39,  40-55, 
57-59, 68,  chap. V, 102, 109; 139-40, 
167-69,  171,  194,  202,  204, 209,  211, 
213,  217-18,  228,  233-34,  242,  246, 
252,  256;  feudal,  260-65;  ecclesias- 
tical, 280,  283,  285-87,  289-92;  ex- 
pansion, 305-09;  and  the  crusades, 
314,  320-21,  323,  326;  towns  and 
gilds,  331,  336,  340,  342,  345,  349- 
50,  352,  356,  363,  368-69,  372; 
learning,  375-76,  389-90,  402;  ar- 
chitecture, 422-23,  431 ;  further  his- 
tory, 436,  442,  450,  457,  460-63, 
467-70,  472,  474,  513,  524,  chap. 
»cviu,  552-53, 556-57, 560-61, 566- 
72,  595,  614-17,  633,  638 

Ghent,  365-67,  498,  512,  524,  618 


658 


INDEX 


GhibelHnes,  350,  364 

Ghiberti,  603 

Ghirlandajo,  605 

Gian  Galeazzo,  see  Visconti 

Gibbon,  Edward,  115,  128 

Gibraltar,  19,  135,  179,  188,  304,  394 

Gilbert  of  England,  387 

Gild  houses,  339,  599 

Gilds,  Roman,  35,  331;  medieval,  327; 
merchant,  330;  of  artisans,  331-35, 
340;  Venetian,  344;  Lombard,  347- 
48;  Tuscan,  354;  French,  362,  494; 
Parisian,  363;  of  Bruges,  366-67; 
German,  368;  scholastic,  390;  plays 
given  by,  409;  Black  Death  and, 
515;  Italian,  577,  584,  604;  of  Liege, 
618 

Giotto,  432,  598,  601-02 

Girls,  singing-,  184;  dancing-,  320 

Gladiators,  33,  38,  126,  132 

Glanville,  Ranulf,  476 

Glarus,  542 

Glass,  234,  339,  388;  and  see  Stained 
glass 

Gloss  and  glossators,  377,  381 

Gnosticism,  102 

God,  3,  51,  65,  69-70,  97-100,  102, 
106,  145,  158,  160,  163,  174-75, 183, 
206,  208,  287,  299,  312,  323,  380, 
382,  404,  413,  416,  429,  440,  442-43, 
449-50,  455-56,  564.  635 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  314,  318 

Godwine,  Earl  of  Wessex,  276 

Gog  and  Magog,  549 

Goidels,  398 

Golden  Bull,  533,  539.  547 

Golden  Fleece,  Order  of,  617-18 

Golden  Horde,  549,  55 1.  556,  608 

Goldsmiths,  598,  604 

Gonzaga,  House  of,  580 

"Good-for-nothing"  kings,  192-93 

Good  Parliament,  522 

Gorm,  the  Old,  King  of  Denmark,  218 

Gospel  and  Gospels,  chap,  vi,  166, 
210,  442,  449,  455 

Gothia,  Marquis  of,  272 

Gothic  architecture,  16,  147,  401,  418, 
420, 423-33,  487,  513, 586,  599,  601, 
622 

Gothic  History,  of  Jordanes,  127 

Gothic  language,  55,  398 

Goths,  54-55.  58,  93.  96,  119.  633;  and 
see  East  Goths,  West  Goths 

Gotland,  island  of,  369,  543 

Government,  Roman,  27,  68,  70,  75, 
78,  80;  early  German,  47-50;  no- 
madic, 57;  ecclesiastical,  102,  105, 
155,  198;  of  German  kingdoms,  117, 
120-22,  169-70;  of  Justinian,  129, 
131,  140,  149;  Mohammedan,  178, 
181,  186-87;  Prankish,  192-94,202- 


04,  206-07;  its  disintegration,  219, 
225-26,  232-33,  256;  of  feudal  pe- 
riod, 257-59,  264,  268-69;  Norman, 
275,  277;  self-,  307-08,  335,  538, 
578;  niunicipal,  334-36,  342-54, 
chap,  xix;  growth  of  national,  457, 
459-60,  472,  chaps.  XXV,  xxvi,  518- 
27:  lack  of  imperial,  536;  in  Renais- 
sance Italy,  576-86;  at  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  chap,  xxxiii 

Grain  supply,  35,  126,  141,  149-50 

Grammar,  124,  158,  168,  211,  375, 
378,  590-91 

Granada, 189,  304-05.  453.  630-31 

Grand  jury,  477-78   • 

Granson,  battle  of,  621 

Gratian,  Roman  Emperor,  76,  78,  95 

Gratian,  monk  at  Bologna,  295,  377- 
78,  382 

Great  Britain,  10,  261;  and  see  British 
Isles 

Great  Charter,  see  Magna  Carta 

Great  Council,  see  Council 

Great  Khan,  see  Khan 

Great  Mother,  worship  of,  64 

Great  Schism,  565-68,  575 

Great  Wall  of  China,  548 

Greece,  4,  li,  19-25,  36,  60-61,  67, 
80, 151, 172, 217, 310, 328, 453, 466, 

553-54.  558,  591 
Greek,  alphabet,  letters  of  the,  44,  55 
Greek  art,  21,  23-25,  32-33,  66,  600, 

603 
Greek  Church,  135;  and  see  Church, 

Eastern 
Greek  civilization,  20-26,  39-40,  46- 

47,53-54,60-61,78,152,  217,249, 

310 
Greek  Empire,  87,  465,  553;  and  see 

Byzantine 
Greek  language,    10,   21,  23,  44,  53, 

151,  154,  164,  210-11,  407,  590-93 
Greek  literature,  9,  21,   65-66,   113, 

148,  166,  404,  590-92 
Greek  monasteries.  III 
Greek  mythology,  21,  45,  407 
Greek  race,  52 
Greek  philosophy  and  science,  21-22, 

62,  379, 388,  390,  393,  397,  587,  589 
Greek,  translations  of,  96, 182-83,  378, 

384-86 
Greeks,  medieval,   14,  177,  181,  196, 

345,  383 
Greenland,  223-24,  395,  453 
Gregorian  chants,  158 
Gregorian  reforms,  308 
Gregory  the  Great,  Pope,  113,  chap. 

ix,  175,  207,  222,  233,  283,  373 
Gregory  II,  195-96 
Gregory  VI,  286 
Gregory    VII,     (Hildebrand),     286- 


INDEX 


659 


93,  300,  310-12,  341,  459,  462,  471, 

502-03 
Gregory  IX,  468,  470 
Gregory  XI,  565 
Gregory  XII,  567-68 
Gregory  of  Tours,  119,  125,  127,  159 
Grimoald,  193-94 
Grotesques,  422,  426,  433 
Guadalquivir  River,  17,  186,  305 
Guelders,  618 
Guelfs,  350,  462 
Guesclin,  Bertrand  du,  522 
Guicciardini,  578,  594 
Guienne,  497,  508,  512,  518,  626,  637; 

and  see  Aquitaine 
Guinea,  609 
Guipuzcoa,  304 

Guiscard,  see  Robert  and  Roger 
Gundobad,  King  of  the  Burgundlans, 

122 

Gunpowder,  invention  of,  16,  388,  570, 

587 
Gutenberg,  594 

Haarlem,  594 

Hades,  412 

Hadrian,  Roman  Emperor,  291 

Hadrian  I,  Pope,  208 

Hainault,  167,  270,  365,  616 

Hakam  II,  Caliph  of  Cordova,  188 

Hall,  of  castle,  249;  largest  vaulted, 

354;  university,  391 ;  of  thegns,  400; 

cathedral  used  as,  417 
Hamburg,  334,  369,  546 
Hamlet,  365 
Hanse,  330,  367 
Hanseatic  League,  369,  532,  542-47, 

551 
Hapsburg,  House  of,  15,  537-42,  553, 

571,  614-15,  621-22,  638 
Harald  Hardrada,  see  Harold 
Harbiyah  quarter,  184 
Hare,  quoted,  371 
Harfleur,  526 
Harmony  of  Conflicting  Canons,  377- 

78,  382  ^ 
Harold  Fair-Hair,  Kingof  Norway,  2 1 8 
Harold,  Hardrada,  230,  276 
Harold,  King  of  England,  276 
Hastings,  battle  of,  276 
Health,  38,  154,  173,  337738,  45o;  and 

see     Disease,     Medicine,     Plague, 

Sanitation 
Hebrew,  114,  407 
Hebrides,  166,  220 
Hedwig,  Queen  of  Poland,  552 
Hegira,  14,  174 

Heidelberg,  University  of,  390 
Hell,  157,  412 
Hellas,    Hellenes,    and    Hellenic,   see 

Greece,  Greeks,  and  Greek 


Hellenistic  civilization,  22-23,  98,  l8l 

Hellespont,  556 

Heloise,  381 

Henoticon,  108 

Henry  I,  King  of  Germany,  227-28, 

262,  305 
Henry  II,  Holy  Roman  Emperor,  265, 

270,  285 
Henry  III,  264,  285-86,  288,  300 
Henry    IV,   285-91,  293,  314,  341 
Henry  V,  291 

Henry  VI,  302,  322,  461-63,  468,  470 
Henry  VII,  538,  540-41 
Henry,  son  of  Frederick  II,  467,  469 
Henry  the  Lion,  Duke  of  Saxony,  305, 

307,  349,  462 
Henry  I,  King  of  England,  274,  278, 

293.  296,  380-81,  475,  480 
Henry  II,  260,  278,  295-98,  352,  363, 

384,  457,  475-80,  487,  492-93 
Henry  III,  470,  481-83,  496-97,  499, 

537 
Henry  IV,  511,525,  565 
Henry  V,  511,  525-27 
Henry  VI,  511,  525,  527,  529,  627-29 
Henry  VII,  530,  628-30,  634,  640 
Henry  VIII,  298,  530,  630,  632,  637 
Henry  of  Burgundy,  Count  of  Por- 
tugal, 303 
Henry  the  Navigator,  Prince  of  Por- 
tugal, 394,  608-09 
Heraclius,  Byzantine  Emperor,  150- 

53,  177 

Heraldry,  44,  252,  324 

Hereditary  succession,  195 

Heresy,  early,  101-02;  Justinian  and, 
134;  Gregory  the  Great  and,  157- 
58;  under  Mohammedan  rule,  177, 
190;  medieval,  294,  323,  338,  405, 
442-48,  450-51,  454,  464,  467-68, 
470,  504.  529,  534,  561,  565,  567, 
573,  632,  636;  and  see  Arians, 
Gnosticism,  Montanism,  Mono- 
physites,  Cathari,  Waldensians, 
Lollards,  J-Iussites,  etc. 

Hermandad,  Holy,  631 

Hermann  the  Lame,  376 

Hermits,  64,  109-11,  160-61,  516 

Herodotus,  21,  45  note 

Hero-worship,  3,  6 

Herzegovina,  453,  558 

Hesse,  168,  539 

Hide,  233,  235 

High  German,  398-99 

Hildebrand,  see  Gregory  VII,  Pope 

Hilderic,  King  of  the  Vandals,  135 

Hindu-Arabic  numerals,  183,  386 

Hippo,  95-96 

Hippodrome,  130,  132-33,  148,  153, 
196 

Hired  laborers,  agricultural,  486 


66o 


INDEX 


History,  chap,  i,  21,  41,  82,96,  119, 
159.  163,  172,  224,  375-76,  401-02, 
406-10,  412,  424,  578,  586, 591, 594, 
596,  609,  639;  and  see  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  Blok,  Dio  Cassius, 
Froissart,  Gibbon,  Gregory  of  Tours, 
Guicciardini,  Herodotus,  Jordanes, 
Machiavelli,  Orosius,  Otto  of  Frei- 
sing,  Polybius,  Psellus,  Stubbs, 
Suetonius,  Tacitus,  etc.;  and  see 
Sources 

History  of  Animals,  of  Aristotle,  22 

Hofrecht,  279,  370 

Hogue,  La,  513 

Hohenstaufen,  House  of,  341,  349,  461, 
470-72,  482,  532,  537,  54<^4i.  633 

Hohenzollern,  House  of,  540,  547 

Holidays,  333 

Holland,  270,  306,  365,  616 

Holstein,  County  of,  305-06 

Holy  City,  see  Jerusalem 

Holy  Family,  605 

Holy  Grail,  406 

Holy  Hermandad,  631 

Holy  Inquisition,  see  Inquisition 

Holy  Lance,  discovery  of,  316 

Holy  Land,  267,  270,  311,  314,  320- 

21,  323,  467,  544;  and  see  Palestine 
Holy  League,  637 

Holy  Roman  Empire,  262-65,  269-71, 
279-80,  285, 288,  292, 302, 305, 321- 

22,  329,  341,  346,  349-54,  356,  368, 
389,  412,  414,  461-63,  469-71,  chap, 
xxviii,  548,  552-53.  560,  565.  577. 
614-15,  620,  622,  638-39 

Holy  Sepulcher,  312,  318,  409 

Holy  Spirit,  98,  284 

Holy  water,  441 

Homage,  ceremony  of,  242,  255,  512 

Home  life,  see  Family,  House 

Homer,  4,  21,  24,  590;  quoted,  9,  69 

Honoria,  82 

Honorius,  Roman  Emperor,  78,  80- 
82,  84-85 

Honorius  III,  Pope,  468 

Hospitals,  185,  583,  632 

Hospitalers,  303,  507,  559 

Hours,  of  labor,  333;  of  students,  391 

House,  12,  43,  47,  149,  234,  337-40, 
367,  369,  516;  and  see  Palaces  of  the 
Renaissance 

House  of  Commons,  see  Commons 

House  of  Lords,  see  Lords 

Household  officials,  see  Court,  cere- 
monial officials 

Hrosvita,  374-75 

Hruodland,  200;  and  see  Song' of  Ro- 
land 

Hubert  de  Burgh,  458,  476 

Hubert  Walter,  481 

Hufe,  235 


Hugh  Capet,  266-67 

Hugh  the  White,  267 

Hugo  of  Provence,  261 

Humanism,  574,  587-95,  598,  603,  606 

Humanities,  6,  592 

Humanity,  31,  38 

Hundred,  127,  221,  476-79 

Hundred  Years  War,  chap,  xxvii,  548, 
616,  622,  627,  630 

Hungary,  11,  140,  227-31,  263,  287, 
301, 308-09,  314,  322,  327,  336,  367, 
390,  445,  450,  453,  455-56,  465-66, 
532,  537.  546,  549,  551-53,  556-58, 
561,  566,  568,  571,  583,  615-16;  and 
see  Magyars 

Huns,  55-59,  75-77,  80,  84-85,  87-88, 
117,  139.  179.  218,  301,  548-49,  554 

Huntmg,  43,  199,  206,  252,  268,  379, 

475,  563 
Hunyadi,  John,  558 
Huss,  John,  568-70 
Hussites,  553,  568-73 
Hussite  Wars,  553,  570-72,  575 
Hymns,  113,  210,  299,  392 
Hypocausts,  249 

lazyges,  53 

Ibn  Jubair,  326 

Iceland,  12,  42,  46,  217,  223-24,  226, 

395,  400-01,  453,  455,  546,  610 
Iconium,  344 
Iconoclasm,  148,  195,  214 
Idyll,  593 
Ignatius,  lOO 
He  de  France,  266 

Illumination  of  manuscripts,  166,  432 
Illyria,  80 
Illyricum,  155,  196 
Images,  veneration  of,  195,  207 
Immorality,   ancient,   37,   57,  63,  93, 

96-97,  99,  103;  medieval,  159,  168, 

172,  192,  199,  289,  293,  313,  506; 

clerical,  561-63;  Renaissance,  577- 

80,  582,  635-36,  638 
Immortality,  63,  65,  98,  lOO,  175,  197, 

386 
Immunity,  232,  255-56,  276;  and  see 

Land  system 
Impeachment,  522-23 
Imperator,  28 

Imperial  cities,  368,  534,  615 
Imperial  court  of  justice,  615,  622 
Imprisonment,  447,  578,  625-26;  and 

see  Dungeons,  Jail,  Penalties 
Incantations,  36,  45,  64,  184,  387-88 
India,  20,  22,  34,  40,  58,  180,  183,  394, 

407,  551.  556,  587,  609,  611 
Indian  Ocean,  608,  61 1,  633 
Indies,  609;  and  see  East  and  West 
Indo-European  languages,  4,  10.  42, 

53.  139.  177 


INDEX 


66i 


Indo-Germanic,  see  Indo-European 

Indulgences,  311-13,323,  440-41,446, 
561-63,  568 

Industrial  Revolution,  340 

Industry,  2,  12;  of  Roman  Empire, 
35-36,  67,  71,  73;  Byzantine,  149; 
monastic,  161,  163;  Mohamme- 
dan, 185-86;  early  medieval,  192, 
237,  327;  medieval,  chap,  xvii,  344, 
364-65,  368,  388,  434,  487,  498, 
631-32;  and  see  Gilds 

Inferno,  Dante's,  412-13,  588 

Ingeborg  of  Denmark,  460 

Innocent  III,  Pope,  304,  434-39,  444- 
45,  447-67,  471,  478-79,  488,  493. 
502-03 

Innocent  IV,  323,  470-71 

Inquisition,  444,  446-48,  454,  477, 
506,  561;  Spanish,  574,  631-32 

Insanity,  525-26,  633 

Inscriptions,  4,  32,  44 

Institutes,  of  Gaius,  143;  of  Justinian, 
143;  of  Cassian,  11 1 

Interdict,  438,  441,  454,  458,  464,  546 

Interest,  attitude  toward  taking, 
Roman,  35;  medieval,  294,  355 

Intermarriage,  Germans  and  Romans, 
213,  348;  forbidden  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians, 123;  Europeans  and  Syrians, 
320;  between  royal  and  feudal 
houses,  491,  533;  of  Spanish  king- 
doms, 630 

Interregnum,  470,  537-38 

Invasions,  see  Germans,  Nomads, 
Franks,  Alamanni,  Burgundians, 
Goths,  Lombards,  Anglo-Saxons, 
Bulgars,  Avars,  Arabs,  Northmen, 
Magyars,  Slavs,  Almohades,  Almo- 
ravides.  Moors,  Mongols,  Turks, 
French  invasions  of  Italy,  etc. 

Inventions,  324,  375,  388,  587,  606 

Investiture  struggle,  283-S7,  289, 
291-93,  300,  305,  341,  346,  471 

lona,  166-67,  220 

Ireland,  40,  111-12, 164-70,  220,  225, 
261,  276,  278,  376,  398,  401,  434, 
487 

Irish  Channel,  223 

Irene,  Byzantine  Empress,  207 

Irnerius,  377 

Iron  age,  4,  42 

Iron-clad  wagons,  570 

Isabella,  Queen  of  Castile,  574,  630- 
33,  640 

Isaurians,  79,  86-87,  128 

Isidore  of  Seville,  125,  127,  211,  373 

Isis,  63 

Islam,  chap,  x,  216,  302, 309,  320,  324, 
550,  554;  and  see  Mohammedan- 
ism, Moslems 

Israel,  Children  of,  322 


Istria,  342 

Italian  Lakes,  542 

Italian  language,  260,  399,  411,  562, 
588 

Italian  literature,  405,  410-15,  586- 
88,  593-94,  596 

Italian  Renaissance,  210,  423,  432, 
574,  chaps.  xxTj,  xxxii,  633,  639 

Italy,  II,  15,  19;  ancient,  23-24,  26- 
28,  33,  36,  53-54.  60-61,  67-68,  72; 
during  the  invasions,  78-81,  85-87, 
90,  96,  109,  III;  early  medieval, 
chap,  vii,  128,  133, 136-40,  146-47, 
150,  154-57,  166,  169-71,  180,  192, 
194-98,  208,  210,  212-13,  222,  226- 
27;  feudal,  260-63,  265,  271,  279- 
80,  292,  295,  305,  310;  rise  of  cities, 
313,  318-19,  322,  324-25-  331. 335- 
36,  339-40,  chap,  xviu,  357,  362, 
365--66,  369;   medieval  culture  of, 

374,  376-77.  389-90,  395,  401,  405, 
410,  423,  431-32;  in  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 434, 450, 461-64,  467-68,  470- 
72,  482-83,  503;  in  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  505-06,  515, 
532.  538,  540-41.  560-61,  565-68, 
573-74,  chap.  XXXI,  599,  601-02, 
604-05,  614,  622,  632,  633-38,  640 

Italy,  central,  155,  196,  213,  227,  351, 
421,  448,  461-63,  605 

Italy,  northern,  3-4,  42,  136,  170,  197, 
213,  283,  289,  314,  341-42.  349-50, 
352-53,  377, 399.  421, 580, 605,  637- 
38 

Italy,  southern,  10,  20,  23,  60,  81,  138, 
155;  Byzantine,  196,  209,  265,  327; 
Lombard,  196;  Saracen,  216,  226- 
27;  Norman,  225-26,  287,  289,  291, 
301-02,  314,  343,  350,  377;  Hohen- 
staufen,  461-63,  466-67,  469;  An- 
gevin, 4.71,  497 

Itinerant  justices,  475-76,  492 

Ivan  III  of  Russia,  544,  551 

Ivory  carvings,  147 

Jacobite  Church,  184 
Jacquerie,  521,  524 
Jagello,  552-53 
Jagellons,  dynasty  of,  552-53 
Jails,  Mohammedan,  185;  and  see  Im- 
prisonment 
James  I,  King  of  Aragon,  304 
Janizaries,  554 
Japan,  183 
Java,  393 

Jean  de  Meun,  408 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  see  Joan  of  Arc 
Jenghiz  Khan,  548 
Jerome,  St.,  11-13,  154.  157 
Jerome  of  Prague,  568-69 
Jerusalem,   103,   106,   150,   152,   156, 


662 


INDEX 


177, 180, 190,301,311,318-23,413, 

440,  466,  469;  Kingdom  of,  318-20, 
322,  467 

Jesters,  562 

Jesus  Christ,  14,  chap,  vi,  125,  175, 
195,  209,  296,  299,  311,  313,  316, 
318,  380,  413,  439,  442, 447-48, 517, 
561,  569,  572;  Order  of,  608 

Jews,  97-98,  103,  123-24,  158;  in 
Mohammedan  world,  174,  176,  184, 
186;  in  Western  Christendom,  123- 
24,  178,  195,  325,  355,  358,  370, 
372,  485,  494,  500,  560,  632;  in 
eastern  Russia,  230;  and  see  Juda- 
ism 

Joan  of  Arc,  336,  528-29,  531 

Joanna  I,  Queen  of  Naples,  586 

Joanna  II,  586 

Joanna,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  633-34 

Jobst,  imperial  claimant,  539 

John  X,  Pope,  227 

John  XXII,  561 

John  XXIII,  567-68,  572,  604 

John,  King  of  England,  444,  457-60, 
466,  479-81,  487-88,  493-94,  509, 
519,  562-64 

John  II,  or  the  Good,  King  of  France, 

511,  517,  519,  522,  525 
John  II,  King  of  Aragon,  586 
John  II,  King  of  Portugal,  609,  632- 

33 
John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 

526 
John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster, 

523,  525,  563,  628 
John  of  Cappadocia,  129,  132 
John  of  Ireland,  or  Erigena,  211,  373- 

74  ^       . 

John  of  Monte  Corvmo,  394 
John  of  Piano  Carpini,  393 
John,  see  Hunyadi,  Huss,  Wyclif,  etc. 
John,  Gospel  of,  107  note 
Jonas,  the  monk,  159 
Jordanes,  119,  127 
Journeyman,  331-32 
Jousts,  252 
Jubilee,  504,  561 
Judaism,  98,  103,  172,  175;  and  see 

Jews 
Judas,  413 
Juliers,  88 

Julius  II,  Pope,  607,  634,  636-37 
Julius  Caesar,  see  Caesar 
Julius  Firmicus  Maternus,  see  Fir- 

micus 
Jupiter,  priest  of,  4 
Jura  Mountains,  12,  17,  542 
Jurists,  Roman,  30-31;  medieval,  434 
Jury,  trial  by,  206,  477-78,  627,  629 
Just  price,  332-33;  and  see  Prices 


Justiciar,  458 

Justin,  128,  131,  133 

Justinian,  chap,  viii,   155,   178,   190, 

206,  260,  342,  377,  413,  589 
Jutes,  85,  118,  164 
Juvenal,  39,  66,  99 

Kaaba,  174,  176 

Kalmar  Union,  547 

Karakorum,  393 

Keep,  of  castle,  247 

Kent,  164,  167,  169,  220-21 

Khalid,  176 

Khan  (or,  Khagan),  57-58,  393,  548- 

51 

Khazars,  230 

Kiev,  224,  230,  344,  549 

King  of  the  Romans,  615 

Kings,  49,  120;  Frankish,  192,  194, 
202-07;  Anglo-Saxon,  221-22;  in 
feudal  period,  256,  259;  and  pa- 
pacy, 287,  455-63,  466;  their  anger, 
349;  and  communes  in  France,  361, 
363;  and  universities,  391 ;  Norman 
and  Angevin,  459;  French,  401; 
Scandinavian,  546-47,  577;  and  see 
Absolutism,  Government,  Royal 

King's  Bench,  Court  of,  476 

Kinship,  in  ancient  city,  24;  among 
early  Germans,  47 

Knighthood,  251-52,  297,  303,  308, 
312,  324,  347,  349,  514;  German, 

534,  539,  591 

Knight  service,  242,  257,  277 

Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  406 

Knights  of  the  shire,  477-78,  482-84, 
486,  488,  501;  and  see  Dobrzin, 
Golden  Fleece,  Hospitalers,  Rob- 
ber Knights,  Templars,  Teutonic 
Knights,  etc. 

Koran,  172-73,  181,  191,  320 

Korea,  183 

Kosovo,  556 

Kublai  Khan,  550 

Kumanians,  548-49 

Laborers,  Statute  of,  518,  523-24 

Labrador,  223 

Laconia,  151 

Ladislas  I,  Posthumous,  King  of  Bo- 
hemia and  Hungary,  571,  615 

Ladislas  II,  571,  615 

Lady  Chapels,  430 

Laity,  demand  a  greater  share  in  the 
Church,  562,  569 

Lake-dwellers,  3-4 

Lambert  of  Hersfeld,  376 

Lancaster,  House  of,  525,  531,  618, 
627-29 

Lancelot  Malocello,  394 

Lancet  windows,  431 


INDEX 


663 


Landgraves,  534 

Land-peaces,  538 

Landscape  painting,  605 

Land  system,  of  Roman  Empire,  36- 
37;  of  early  Germans,  44;  allot- 
ments to  veterans,  29;  to  barbarian 
settlers,  67;  to  German  invaders, 
87,  119-20;  effect  of  the  barbarian 
invasions,  92-93;  the  great  land- 
holder, 120,  123,  162,  170,  193,  204, 
214;  church  lands,  105,  155,  283; 
their  distribution  by  Charles  Mar- 
tel,  194;  Mohammedan  Spain,  187; 
feudal  period,  232-46,  254-55,  301, 
329,  521;  England,  277,  477,  484, 
523-24,  630;  German  northeast, 
305-06;  Lombardy,  346-47;  Scan- 
dinavia, 546;  Low  Countries,  617; 
France,  622;  and  see  Agriculture, 
Manor,  Peasants,  Serfdom,  Villa 

Lanfranc,  376 

Langland,  William,  400,  516 

Langton,  Stephen,  458-59 

Languages,  and  history,  4,  6-7;  and 
race,  9-10;  in  Mithridates'  empire, 
.54;  effect  of  invasions  on,  119,  474; 
in  church  service,  120;  medieval, 
260,  371,  397-400;  modern,  16,  415, 
587;  and  see  Aryan,  Celtic,  English, 
French,  German,  Greek,  Indo-Euro- 
pean, Italian,  Latin,  Slavic,  etc. 

Languedoc,  272-73,  442,  445,  497, 
501,  524,  627 

Langue  d'oc,  and  langue  d'oil,  399 

Laon,  219,  360-62,  376,  380,  438,  524 

Lapland,  223 

Lapps,  II 

Las  Siete  Par  Mas,  410 

Last  judgment,  412 

Last  Judgment,  of  Michelangelo,  607 

"Later  Roman  Empire,"  87 

Lateran  Palace,  198,  286-87,  452;  and 
see  Fourth  Lateran  Council 

Latin,  Christendom  and  Church,  see 
Papacy 

Latin  cross,  83,  147,  and  see  Cruciform 
churches 

Latin  Empire,  at  Constantinople,  453, 
465-66,  553,  583 

Latin  language,  literature,  and  learn- 
ing, 7,  10,  24,  49,  53;  decline  of, 
65-66,  86,  92,  114,  122,  124,  143, 
152,  157,  164,  182;  Carolingian, 
210-11,  222-23,  272,  294;  in  tenth 
and  eleventh  centuries,  348,  374, 
376;  in  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, 377-412,  419,  435,  474,  487; 
in  the  later  Middle  Ages,  562-63; 
of  Italian  Renaissance,  588-93 

Latin  population  and  race,  24,  52,  119. 
213 


Latin  states  in  Syria,  310, 318-22,  554, 
607 

Laura,  Petrarch's,  588 

Laurentian  Portolano,  395 

Law  and  laws,  including  legal  and 
legislation;  of  ancient  city-state, 
26;  of  nature,  31,  99;  international, 
114;  Carolingian,  203-06;  of  United 
States,  206;  English,  206,  241;  feu- 
dal, 278-79;  royal,  279,  519,  521, 
and  see  Royal  Courts;  of  medieval 
towns,  335-36,  341,  357,  362,  364, 
475;  Merchant,  335-36,  475;  medi- 
eval diversity  of,  336,  475,  490;  of 
Frederick  II  in  Sicily,  469;  of  Ed- 
ward I  in  England,  484;  of  Parlia- 
ment under  Edward  III,  518;  Rus- 
sian, 549,  551;  Polish,  552;  Vene- 
tian, 582;  French,  627;  Spanish, 
631;  and  see  Anglo-Saxon,  Canon, 
Common,  German,  and  Roman  law 

Law-speakers,  50 

Lay  investiture,  see  Investiture  strug- 
gle 

League  of  Cambrai,  637 

League  of  the  Public  Welfare,  624-25 

League  of  Venice,  636 

Leagues,  feudal,  495-97.  502,  526,  539 

Leagues,  of  towns,  362,^ 372,  524,  539, 
541 ;  and  see  Hanseatic,  Holy,  Lom- 
bard, Rhine,  Swabian  Leagues,  and 
Swiss  Confederation 

Learning,  Hellenistic,  22-23;  early 
medieval,  124-25;  Arabian,  181-83, 
188;  Carolingian,  199;  Anglo-Saxon, 
168,  222-23;  medieval,  299,  325, 
Chap.  XX,  407,  434,  449,  475,  482, 
487,  515;  Renaissance,  576;  and  see 
Greek,  Latin,  Humanism,  Scholas- 
ticism 

Lechfeld,  battle  of,  228 

Legai,  see  Law 

Legates,  papal,  108,  280,  286,  289, 
297,  314,  436,  444-45.  453.  461, 
465-66,  481,  504, 513,  546,  558,  562, 
568 

Legislation,  see  Assemblies,  Law 

Legnano,  battle  of,  353,  356 

Lehnrecht,  279 

Le  Mans,  see  Mans 

Lenses,  invention  of  magnifying,  388 

Lent,  202,  495 

Leo  I,  Byzantine  Emperor,  86 

Leo  III, 195-96,  302 

Leo  I,  or  the  Great,  Pope,  85,  107-08, 

115 
Leo  III,  208 
Leo  IX,  286,  302 
Leo  X,  115,  634,  638,  640 
Leon,  Kingdom  of,  188,  273,  302,  304, 

630 


664 


INDEX 


Leonardo  of  Pisa,  386;  and  see  Vinci, 
Leonardo  da 

Lepers,  449-50,  495 

Les  villes  neuves,  363-64 

Lesser  Armenia,  see  Armenia 

Letters  of,  Cassiodorus,  119,  124; 
Gregory  the  Great,  155;  Gregory 
VII,  289;  Psellus,  309;  crusaders, 
310;  Gerbert,  375;  Innocent  III, 
434,  454;  Asiatic  travelers,  550; 
Petrarch,  588,  596;  and  see  Paston 
Letters 

Letters  of  credit,  325,  355 

Letts,  139,  532,  544 

Levant,  401 

Libraries,  largest  ancient,  22;  monas- 
tic, 125,  163,  167,  375;  Arabian,  182, 
188-89;  early  medieval,  381;  uni- 
versity, 391;  Charles  the  Wise's, 
521 ;  Vatican,  574;  effect  of  printing 
.on,  594 

Libyans,  79;  and  see  Berbers,  Moors 

Liege,  270,  618;  bishopric  of,  365,  524, 
618 

Lille,  365 

Limburg,  Duchy  of,  616 

Limoges,  218,  366 

Limousin,  272,  510 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  16 

Lincoln  Cathedral,  432 

Lindisfarne,  166-67 

Lippi,  Fra  Lippo,  598 

Lisbon,  188,  366,  394,  610-11 

Literary  criticism,  590 

Literature,  16;  Arabian,  182;  of  feu- 
dalism, 251,  253,  327-28;  and  pope, 
288;  and  crusades,  310;  and  towns, 
328,  337,  364,  367,  371;  medie- 
val, 325,  chap,  xxi,  434,  475,  515, 
521,586;  Renaissance,  576,  611,626, 
634;  and  see  Greek,  Latin,  Patris- 
tic, Anglo-Saxon,  English,  French, 
German,  Italian,  Spanish,  Proven- 
gal,  etc. 

Lithuania,  139,  544-46,  551-53,  5^8 

Little  Armenia,  see  Armenia 

Liturgy,  374  t       ^      , 

Liutprand,  King  of  the  Lombards, 
196-97 

Liutprand,  historian,  375 

Liverpool,  220 

Lives  of  Illustrious  Men,  38,  597 

Lives  of  the  Painters,  597 

Lives  of  the  Saints,  109,  113,  1 16,  159, 
170,  409,  432,  563 

Lives  of  the  Twelve  Ccesars,  39 

Livonia,  184,  544 

Local  government.  Prankish,  203,  219; 
Anglo-Saxon,  221-22,  474;  English, 
476-78,  516;  French,  490,  627;  Ger- 
man, 533-36;  Spanish,  631-32 


Loches,  624 

Lodi,  352 

Logic,  22,  124-25,  379-80,  393,  592 

Loire  River,  12,  17,  85,  88,  90,  198, 

271,273-74,  358,  372,  401,408,  494, 

517,  527 
Lollards,  564-65 
Lollianus,  70 
Lombard    communes,    346-56,    368, 

468-70,  473 
Lombard  League,  352-53,  362,  461, 

469-70 
Lombard,  Peter,  see  Peter 
Lombard  Street,  355 
Lombards,   118,    122,   136,   140,   150, 

154-57,  159-60,  169-70,  192,  195- 

97,  199-200,  207-08,  212,  226,  240, 

260,  265,  341,  348,  375,  471,  633; 

as  bankers,  355,  500 
Lombardy,  170-71,  213,  227,  341,  349- 

50,  353-54,  375,  442,  464,  468,  605 
London,  220,  276,  355,  367-68,  482, 

517,  523,  543,  562 
Long  bow,  514 
Lordship,    theories    of,    feudal,    259; 

Wyclif's,  563 
Lords,  House  of,  484-86,  501,  522 
Lord's  Prayer,  387 
Lord's  Supper,  569;  and  see  Mass 
Lorraine,  213,  262,  270,  314,  508,  528, 

538,  620-21,  625 
Lorris,  372,  408 
Lot,  election  by,  585 
Lotario  de  Segni,  see  Innocent  III, 

Pope 
Lothair,  Frankish  Emperor,  204,  212- 

13 
Lotharingia,  213,  262 
Louis,  or  Clovis,  90;  and  see  Clovis 
Louis  the  Pious,  204,  209-10,  212,  280 
Louis  the  German,  King  of  the  E^st 

Franks,  212-13 
Louis  II,  Frankish  Emperor  in  Italy, 

227,  261 
Louis  the  Child,   King  of  the  East 

Franks,  227,  262 
Louis  V,    last   reigning   Carolingian, 

266 
Louis  VI,  or  the  Fat,  King  of  France, 

267-68,  274,  360-61,  491-92,  494 
Louis  VII,  King  of  France,  278,  297, 

320,  352,  492-94 
Louis  VIII,  445,  494-95 
Louis  IX,  or  Saint,  322,  445,  495-500, 

507,  510 
Louis  X,  502,  517 
Louis  XI,  511,  614,  618-21,  623-27, 

629,  634,  640 
Louis  XII,  634,  636-37 
Louis  IV,  of  Bavaria,  Holy  Roman 

Emperor,  539-40,  561,  575 


INDEX 


665 


Louis,  King  of  Hungary  and  Poland, 

552-53 
Louis  of  Orleans,  525-26 
Love, 37,  126,  392,  403,  405,  408,  41a- 

11.588 
Low  Countries,  11,  365-66,  448,  617- 

20;    and    see    Belgium,    Flanders, 

Netherlands 
Low  German,  398-99 
Lubeck,  306,  334,  369,  546 
Lucca,  354,  566,  584 
Lucerne,  canton  of,  542 ;  Lake  of,  541- 

Lucifer,  413 

Lucius,  63 

Lunatics,  516,  565  note;  and  see 
sanity 

Lute,  404 

Luther,  Martin,  115,  638 

Lutterworth,  564 

Luxemburg,  Duchy  of,  616,  620 

Luxemburg,  House  of,  538-40,  552 

Luxeuil,  166-67 

Luxury,  prehistoric,  4;  ancient,  41, 
61 ;  of  declining  Roman  Empire, 
92-94;  early  medieval,  126;  early 
Arabian,  172;  of  Mohammedan 
courts,  182;  trade  in,  225;  of  courts 
of  southern  France,  404;  of  St. 
Francis's  youth,  448-49;  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance,  599 

Luzern,  see  Lucerne 

Lyons,  333,  443,  506;  Council  of,  470- 

Lyric  poetry,  Greek,  21;  medieval, 
403-06,  410;  Renaissance,  593 

Macedon  and  Macedonia,  22-23,  79, 

151.  554.  556  .     „  . 

Macedonian  dynasty,  in  Byzantme 
Empire,  309 

Machiavelli,  Niccolo,  578-80,  594, 
596,  635-36,  640 

Machicolations,  247 

Machinery,  Roman,  35 ;  Byzantine,  185 

Macon,  510 

Madagascar,  393 

Madeira  Islands,  394,  609—10 

Madonnas,  605 

Magdeburg,  368;  Archbishop  of,  307 

Magic,  in  Roman  religion,  4;  in  Ro- 
man Empire,  33,  36;  in  ancient 
medicine,  38;  in  early  German  reli- 
gion, 45,  400;  and  Neo-Platonism, 
65;  transformations,  114;  in  Salic 
Law,  127;  Arabian,  183,  387;  Norse, 
216;  reputations,  375,  384,  412;  and 
science,  387;  in  literature,  400-01, 
406-07 ;  and  see  Witchcraft 

Magna  Carta,  459,  479-81,  485,  488- 
90,  500,  533 


Magyars,   11,  58,  216,  227-32,  262, 
301.  308,  548,  556;  and  see  Hun- 
gary 
Main  River,  42 

Maine,  County  or  Duchy  of,  276,  457, 
494,  497,  508,  626 

Mainz,  264-65,  368,  422,  594;  Synod 
at,  285;  archbishop  of,  532 

Major  domus,  see  Mayor  of  the  Palace 

Majorian,  Roman  Emperor,  91-92 

Malacca,  608 

Malaga,  189 

Malaria,  60 

Malatesta,  Gismondo,  580 

Malocello,  Lancelot,  394 

Mamelukes,  549,  557 

Man,  age  of,  3;  and  see  Brotherhood 
of, 

Manfred,  470-71 

Manichaeism,  96,  442-44 

Manners,  315,  348,  405,  587,  592,  594, 
607,  623,  636,  638 ;  and  see  Chivalry, 
Courtesy,  Knighthood,  Social  con- 
ditions 

Manor,  235-38,  259,  327,  333,  337, 
344,  348,  486,  508,  515,  630; and  see 
Villa 

Manorial  court,  235,  237,  259,  278-79, 
330.  336.  475,  486,  563 

Mans,  Le,  280 

Mansus,  233,  235;  indominicatus,  236 

Mantes,  363 

Mantua,  352,  580,  603;  Synod  of,  287 

Manufactures,  see  Industry 

Manuscripts,  7,  55,  162-65,  167,  185, 
211,  223,  375,  382,  399..588-89,  594, 
601;  and  see  Illumination 

Manzikert,  battle  of,  309 

Maps,  394-96,  587,  610 

Marble,  72-73,  145,  217,  421,  599 

Marcel,  Etienne,  519-21 

March,  or  Mark,  200,  203,  264 

Marcian,  Roman  Emperor,  85-86 

Marco  Polo,  393-94,  396,  550,  607 

Marcomanni,  53 

Marcus  Aurelius,  Roman  Emperor, 
53,  62,  67,  97-98 

Mare,  Peter  de  la,  522 

Margaret  of  York,  618 

Margraves,  203,  534 

Marianus  Scotus,  376 

Maries,  Three,  409 

Marignano,  battle  of,  638 

Mariner's  compass,  invention  of,  16, 
223,  388,  394,  396,  587 

Maritime,  see  Shipping  and  Voyages 

Mark,  see  March,  St.  Mark 

Markets,  25,  184-85,  327,  337,  358, 
362,  365,  367,  494 

Marmora,  Sea  of,  138 

Marne  River,  266 


666 


INDEX 


Marquis,  265 

Marriage,  by  capture,  4,  47;  among 
early  Germans,  46;  of  the  clergy, 
106,  193,  282-83,  287-88;  of  serfs, 
235;  on  the  manor,  237,  330;  feudal, 
243.   253,   403-04,   494;   sacrament 
of,  294,  439;  of  gild  members,  335; 
monastic  attitude  toward,  375;  and 
see   Divorce,  Intermarriage,  Polyg- 
amy 
Marseilles,  iii,  149,  321,  357,  467 
Marsiglio  of  Padua,  561-62,  575 
Martin,  St.,  of  Tours,  109,  iii,  159, 

218,  366 
Martin  V,  Pope,  568,  572-73 
Martyrs,  100,  102,  104,  106,  109,  158, 

274.  297,  375.  430,  443.  569 
Mary  of  Burgundy,  620-21,  632 
Mary  Magdalene,  99 
Marzocco,  of  Donatello,  603 
Masaccio,  602 
Mass,  sacrament  of,  77,  380,  439-40, 

443.  495,  564 
Masses  for  the  dead,   158,  335,  440, 

443.  563 
Massif  central,  le,  88,  272 
Masterpiece,  332 
Master-workman,  331-33,   338,   390, 

Maternus,  see  Firmicus 

Mathematics,  Arabian,  182;  medieval, 
383.  386,  389,  609 

Matilda,  Queen  of  England,  278,  293 

Matilda,  Countess  of  Tuscany,  290, 
354.  462 

Matins  of  Bruges,  499 

Matthew,  Gospel  of,  107  note 

Matthias  Corvinus,  King  of  Hun- 
gary, 558,  571,  615 

Mauretania,  83,  135,  178;  and  see 
Moors 

Maurice,  Byzantine  Emperor,  150, 
156,  159 

Mausoleum  of  Galla  Placidia,  82-83, 

147 
Mavortius,  70 
Maximilian,    Emperor    of    Germany, 

540, 615, 620-21,  626,  632,  634,  636- 

38 
Maxims  of  Frederick  III,  614-15 
Mayence,  see  Mainz 
Mayor  of  commune,  358 
Mayor  of  the  Palace,  179,  193-94 
Maypoles,  origin  of,  45 
Meaux,  266,  270 
Mecca,  172-174,  176 
Mecklenburg,  307,  546 
Medallions,  66,  600 
Medici,  Cosimo  de',  584-85,  596,  603 
Medici,   House   of,  636-38;   and   see 

Pope  Leo  X 


Medici,  Lorenzo  de',  585,  593,  596, 
607,  634,  638,  640 

Medici,  Piero  de',  634 

Medicine,  ancient,  23,  38;  early  medi- 
eval Christian  attitude  toward, 
159-60;  Arabian,  183,  320;  Anglo- 
Saxon,  223;  medieval,  376-77,  385, 
387-89.  393,  590,  632 

Medieval  Empire,  see  Holy  Roman 
Empire 

Medina,  174-76,  180 

Aleditatiotts,  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  62 

Mediterranean  race,  10,  272 

Mediterranean  Sea,  11-12,  19-24,26- 
27,  30,  34,  40,  60,  83,  88-90,  138, 
184, 186, 188, 190, 192,  266,  271-72, 
303-05,  318,  322,  327,  335-36,  341, 
343,  357,  395,  497,  508,  515,  5i7, 
519,  583,  608,  612,  620 

Meissen,  228 

Menander,  21,  24 

Mendicant  Friars,  see  Friars 

Mercenaries,  medieval,  278,  301,  492, 
514,  518,  521,  554,  604,  623,  627; 
and  see  Condottieri 

Merchant,  see  Law  Merchant 

Merchants,  see  Commerce 

Mercia,  Kingdom  of,  169,  220;  Earl- 
dom of,  276 

Merlin,  406 

Merovingian,  monarchs,  125,  127, 
192-94,  261 ;  commerce,  149;  monu- 
ments, 126 

Merseburg,  Bishopric  of,  375 

Mersen,  Treaty  of,  213 

Mesopotamia,  69,  iii,  151,  177,  556 

Messina,  226 

Metal-workers  of  medieval  Paris,  334 

Metamorphoses,  of  Apuleius,  63 

Metaphysics,  of  Aristotle,  385,  592 

Methusaleh,  114 

Metropolitan,  see  Archbishop 

Metz,  85;  cathedral  of,  430 

Meuse  River,  119 

Michael  Scot,  384 

Michelangelo,  605-07,  636 

Middle  Ages,  defined,  13-16;  early, 
233;  later,  511;  close  of,  612,  614, 

639 

Middle  class,  67-68,  614,  621-23, 
629-30,  632;  and  see  Bourgeoisie 

Middle  English,  400 

Middle  High  German,  399,  552 

Milan,  Roman,  85,  96;  medieval,  350- 
53,  468,  470;  Renaissance,  580,  583, 
590,  606,  620,  634,  636-38;  Arch- 
bishop of,  77-78,  134,  580 

Military  Orders,  303,  307-08, 320, 323- 
24,  608,  631 

Mines,  73;  silver,  306;  and  copper, 
616 


INDEX 


667 


Miniatures,  432,  601 

Ministeriales,  246,  255,  279,  288 

Minnesingers,  405-06 

Minorites,  see  Franciscans 

Minorities,  192,  271,  285,  288,  461, 
481,  491,  495,  523-24,  527,  571,  627 

Minstrels,  251 

Miracle  Plays,  409,  415,  426 

Miracles,  pagan,  63;  of  Jesus,  98;  of 
early  Christians,  100;  early  medie- 
val, 158-69,  170-71,  374;  of  Mo- 
hammed, 176;  of  the  crusades,  310; 
of  the  Mass,  439-41,  564;  528 

Miran  Mirza,  557 

Mirror  of  Perfection,  454 

Missal,  210 

Missi,  203-05,  222,  475,  492 

Missions,  Christian,  27,  55,  100-01, 
109,  111-12,  134,  149,  152,  160, 
163-71,  194,  233,  393-94,  435,  450, 
550 

Mithra,  worship  of,  64,  113 

Mithridates,  54 

Model  Parliament,  484 

Modena,  352,  603 

Moesia,  75-77 

Mohammed,  the  Prophet  ,151,  chap.  x. 

Mohammed    II,    Sultan    of   Turkey, 

558-59 

Mohammedanism,  5,  14,  145,  chap,  x, 
200,  223,  226,  273,  301-04,  309-12, 
320, 322-24,  385,  402,  453,  466,  549, 
558,  608,  611,  630;  and  see  Arabs, 
Islam,  Moslems,  Saracens 

Moldavia,  140,  554 

Mombasa,  611 

Monasticism  (including  monasteries, 
monks,  nunneries,  etc.),  2,  16,  92, 
109-12,  116,  123,  125,  134,  152,  154, 
167-68,  171,  175,  182,  184,  194-95, 
199, 206-07,  210,  212,  218,  220,  223, 
229,  232-33,  240,  274,  281-86, 291- 
93,  295,  298-300,  303,  307-08,  320, 
327-28,  337,  363,  365,  370,  375-77. 
381,  392,  412,  418,  427,  435-36, 
450-52,  456,  458,  490,  492,  495,  501, 
515.  544.  546,  569.  572,  592,  601- 
02;  and  see  Abbot,  Asceticism, 
Friars,  Military  Orders,  Rule 

Money,  see  Banking,  Capital,  Coin- 
age, Interest 

Money  fiefs,  243-44 

Money  payments  on  the  manor,  486 

Mongols,  58;  their  invasions  and  Em- 
pire, 393,  548-51,  554,  556,  559,  608 

Mongolia,  393,  550 

Monks,  see  Monasticism 

Monophysites,  128,  133,  195 

Monopolies,  616,  633 

Montanism  and  Montanus,  loi 

Mont  Cenis  Pass,  353,  356 


Monte  Cassino,  160,  377 
Montefeltro,  Federigo  di,  580 
Montenegro,  453 
Montferrat,  Marquis  of,  265,  464,  466, 

580 
Montfort,  see  Simon  de 
Monthery,  battle  of,  625 
Montpellier,  357,  456,  508,  519 
Moors,  54,  79,  121,  126,  135,  182,  273, 
373.  630-33;  and  see  Berbers,  Lib- 
yans, Mauretania,  Morocco 
Moral  Essays,  of  Plutarch,  38 
Moral  standards,  20, 38, 93, 98, 162, 574 
Moralia,  of  Gregory  the  Great,  158 
Morality  Plays,  375 
Morat,  battle  of,  621 
Moravia,  307,  537,  551 
Moravians,  religious  sect,  571 
Morea,  Duchy  of,  466 
Morgante  Maggiore,  593 
Morgarten,  battle  of,  542 
Morocco,  135,  180 
Mosaic  Law,  95 

Mosaics,  Roman,  32;  at  Ravenna,  83, 
129,  146-47,  420;  of  St.  Sophia,  145; 
of    Cordova,    186;    at    Pisa,    421; 
stained  glass  and  miniatures  com- 
pared with,  426-27,  432;  at  Venice, 
599;  in  Italy,  601 
Moscow,  549,  551 
Moselle  River,  620 
Moslems,  chap,  x,  195,  200,  226-27, 
233.  273,  302-04,  309-10,  312,  320- 
23,  326,  366,  550,  554,  558,  574 
Mosques,  180,  185-87,  189,  558 
Mosquitoes,  60,  184 
Mother-goddess,  63-64 
Mountains  of  Europe,  11-12 
Mozambique,  611 
Mummeries,  409 
Mundus,  133 

Municipalities,    of    Roman    Empire, 
26-27,    39.    66;    survival    in    early 
Middle  Ages,   115,    121;  governing 
bodies  of,  disappear,   123,  327-28; 
and  see  Communes,  Towns 
Murad  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  556 
Murad  II,  557 
Musa  ibn  Nusair,  178-79 
Museums,  7,  25,  125,  147-48,  225,  417 
Music,  124-25,  140,  183-84,  375,  392, 

403-04,  410,  598,  606 
Muslimin,  174;  and  see  Moslems 
Myriobiblos,  of  Photius,  148 
Mysteries  or  Mystery  Plays,  334,  375, 

409,  415,  426 
Mysticism,  64,  311,  411 
Mystic  significance  of  numbers,  142 
Mythology,  Greek,  21-24,  62,  97,  112, 
166,    586,    589,    591;    Oriental,    64; 
Norse,  45-46,  59,  397,  400 


668 


INDEX 


Nafels,  battle  of,  542 

Nancy,  battle  of,  621 

Naples,  156,  216,  226,  341,  389,  565- 
66,  635;  Kingdom  of,  471-72,  553, 
566-68,  586,  588,  593,  626,  634,  636 

Napoleon,  129,  540 

Narbonne,  82,  179,  272,  333,  357,  561, 
568;  Archbishop  of,  273,  504 

Narses,  129-32,  136,  138 

Narthex,  146 

Nassau,  see  Adolf  of 

Nationality,  212,  256,  260-61,  457, 
472,  488,  490,  528,  530,  533,  566, 
569,  612, 614-15,  622,  630,  633,  639; 
and  see  Government,  growth  of 
national 

"Nations"  in  medieval  universities, 
389,  552;  at  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance, 567-68 

Natural  history,  I 

Natural  History,  of  Pliny  the  Elder,  24 

Natural  law,  31 

Natural  science,  see  Science 

Nature,  in  medieval  literature,  400- 
01,  405,  408;  in  Renaissance  art, 
601-03;  and  see  Landscape  paint- 
ing, Scenery 

Navarre,  273,  304,  321,  366,  405,  410, 
517,  520,  522,  566,  630,  637 

Navas  de  Tolosa,  battle  of,  304,  453 

Nave,  146,  chap,  xxii,  600 

Navigation,  see  Shipping 

Navigation  laws  of  Venice,  345 

Navy,  see  Shipping 

Nebuchadnezzar,  no 

Negro,  a  medieval,  360 

Nemours,  Duchy  of,  625-26 

Neo-Platonism,  64-65,  96,  106 

Nepos,  Roman  Emperor,  86 

Nepotism,  papal,  463-64,  503,  506 

Nestorians,  109,  133,  184,  195,  550 

Netherlands,  15,  40,  340,  365,  512, 
594,  616-18,  638 

Neustria,  118,  168,  179,  192-94,  198, 
213,  261 

Nevers,  County  of,  525,  616 

Neville's  Cross,  battle  of,  514 

New  England,  223 

Newfoundland,  223 

New  Monarchy,  629 

New  World,  610-12,  638 

New  York,  394 

Nibelungenlied,  42,  46,  400-01,  415 

Nicsea,  315-16;  Councils  of,  55,  105, 
207 

Niccola  Pisano,  601-02 

Nicholas  II,  Pope,  285-87,  302 

Nicholas  y,  573-74.  592 

Nicomedia,  465 

Nicopolis,  battle  of,  553,  556-57 

Nika  revolt,  132-33,  143 


Nile  River,  3,  20,  no,  138,  322,  608 

Nimes,  90 

Nimrod,  591 

Noah,  114,  409 

Nobility,  47,  52,  92,  94;  of  German 
invaders,  1x9-21,  123,  178;  Ara- 
bian, 181,  189;  Prankish,  193-94, 
202-04;  Anglo-Saxon,  222;  in  Ger- 
many, 287^90;  of  towns,  346-48, 
354,  357;  discussed  by  Dante,  411; 
Italian,  154,  160,  434,  578;  Eng- 
lish, 459;  represented  in  Estates, 
488;  Scandinavian,  546;  Bohemian, 
569-72;  Venetian,  581-82:  Floren- 
tine, 584-85;  passing  of  the  medie- 
val, 614,  616,  622-31;  and  see  Feu- 
dalism, Barons,  Lords,  Counts, 
Dukes,  Earls,  Landgraves,  Mar- 
graves, Marquis,  etc. 

Nocera,  566 

Nogaret,  505 

Nomads,  Asiatic  mounted,  55-59, 
139-40,  216,  228,  301,  309,  548,  554; 
and  see  Avars,  Bulgars,  Huns, 
Magyars,  Mongols,  Turks 

Nomads,  of  Arabia,  172,  176;  and  see 
Arabs 

Nomads,  of  Sahara,  178,  328;  and  see 
Berbers,  Moors 

Nominalism,  379-80 

Norbert,  298,  307 

Noricum,  53,  79,  84,  in,  136 

Norman  architecture,  422-23,  487 

Norman  conquest  of  England,  206, 
223,  225,  246,  275-77,  398,  400,  483, 

511 

Norman  conquest  of  Sicily  and  south- 
ern Italy,  225 

Normandy,  206,  219,  225-26,  246, 
256,  259,  270,  274-78,  292,  297-98, 
314, 321, 329-31,  376,  378,  384,  406, 
423,  457,  460,  488,  494,  497,  501, 
508-09,  513,  526-27,  530,  625-27 

Norman  French,  400 

Normans,  219,  230-31,  286-87,  289, 
291, 300-02,  314,  325,  343,  350,  352, 

377, 383-84,  389, 406,  459.  461,  474. 

480,  487,  633 
North  Cape,  223 
North  Mark,  see  Brandenburg 
Northern  race,  10,  42 
Northmen,  202,  212,  216-26,  232-33, 

239, 275-76,  301,  327.  369,  395.  397, 

474;    and    see    Danes,    Normans, 

Scandinavians,  Swedes 
North  Sea,  12,  17,  40,  88,  213,  218, 

226,  275,  369,  543,  617,  620 
Northumbria,   Kingdom   of,   166-69; 

220;  Earldom  of,  276 
Norway,  12,  40,  42,  218,  270,  275-76, 

395.  532,  543,  546 


INDEX 


669 


Norwegiars,  217,  220,  223 

Norwich,  cathedral  of,  423;  bishop  of, 

458 
Notitia  dignitatutn,  74 
Notre  Dame,  cathedral,  432 
Nova  Scotia,  223 
Novella,  593 

Novels,  of  Justinian,  143 
Novgorod,  224,  230,  532,  543-44,  549, 

551 
Noyon,  360 
Numbers,  see  Hindu-Arabic,  Roman, 

Mystic 
Numidia,  83 
Nurnberg,    140,   289,   340,  369,    532, 

539-40 
Nyrawegen,  270 

Oath  and  oath-helpers,  early  German, 
47.  50-51.  205,  208;  250-51,  294, 
535;  and  see  Absolution,  Fidelity, 
Strassburg 

Occult  virtues,  in  nature,  33,  387-88; 
in  relics,  159 

Occupations,  in  Roman  Empire,  37; 
medieval,  334,  516-17,  584 

Ocean  currents,  544 

Oder  River,  11,  17,  228,  305,  307,  398, 

551 
Odo,  Count  of  Paris,  219 
Odoacer,  86-87,  94,  109 
Of  the  Buildings  of  Justinian,  1 53 
Offices,  sale  of,  284,  289,  485,  560-61, 

563;  and  see  Simony 
Oil  painting,  604 
Ointment,  38,  99 
Oise  River,  266 
Olaf,  St.,  230 

Old  English,  400;  and  see  Anglo-Saxon 
Old  High  German,  399 
Old  Irish,  164 
Old  stone  age,  261 
Oligarchy,  26,  483,  581,  584;  and  see 

Feudalism,  and  Nobility 
Olive,  34,  186 
Omar,  180 

Ommiad  dynasty,  180,  198 
Oporto,  County  of,  303 
Optics,  386,  389 
Orestes,  86 
Orange,  33 

Ordeal,  51,  205,  447,  469,  478 
Ordination,  439,  443 
Orient  and  Oriental,  20,  22-23,  46,  54, 

63-64,  74,   147,   181-85,  224,  320, 

324.  369,  383.  386,  401,407,  515, 

549, 611;  and  see  Asia,  China,  India, 

Persia 
Origen,  103 

Orkney  Islands,  166,  220,  276,  395 
OrUmdo  Innamorato,  593 


Orleans,  85,  149,  267,  366,  376,  510; 
siege  of,  527-28;  House  of,  525-26, 
625,  636 

Orleanists,  525-26 

Ormuz,  551 

Orosius,  96,  222 

Orphans,  185,  540,  515;  and  see  Ward- 
ship 

Or  San  Michele,  603 

Osma,  448 

Osman,  554 

Ostrogoths,  see  East  Goths 

Other-worldliness,  64,  100,  109,  412, 
414 

Otranto,  559 

Otto  I,  or  the  Great,  Holy  Roman 
Emperor,  228,  260-63,  265,  280, 
285,  305,  308,  374 

Otto  II,  265,  375 

Otto  III,  265,  329,  375 

Otto  IV,  of  Brunswick,  457,  462-63 

Otto  of  Freising,  quoted,  347-49 

Ottocar  II,  King  of  Bohemia,  537-38, 

552,  559 
Ottoman  Turks,  653-59,  607-08 
Outlawry,  51-52,  503.  534 
Ouvriers,  331 
Overlordship,  see  Feudalism,  Kings, 

Papacy 
Oviedo,  273 
Oxford,  University  of,  389,  563-64; 

Provisions  of,  482 
Oxus  River,  140 

Pachomius,  iio-ii 
Padua,  352,  354,  561,  580,  603-04 
Paganism,    survival   of,    95,    105-06, 
114,  116, 119-20,  125,  134,  308,  385, 

392,  592 

Pain,  ancient  callousness  to,  38;  Norse 
contempt  for,  217 

Painting,  in  catacombs,  113;  Byzan- 
tine, 147-48;  monastic,  163,  166; 
medieval,  426,  432,  448;  Renais- 
sance, 587,  597-99,  601-02,  604-07 

Palaces  of  the  Renaissance,  599-600; 
and  see  Vatican 

Palatinate  of  the  Rhine,  265,  533,  539 

Palazzo  della  Ragione,  at  Padua,  354 

Palermo,  226-27,  303,  383 

Palestine,  98,  150,  322,  405,  468,  605; 
and  see  Holy  Land 

Pallium,  436 

Palos,  610 

Pamiers,  504 

Pampeluna,  366 

Pandects,  see  Digest 

Panegyrics,  92,  126 

Pannonia,  53,  69,  75-76,  136,  138,  140 

Pantheism,  62 

Pantheon,  143,  601 


670 


INDEX 


Pantomime,  65,  126 
Papacy,  early  history,  5,  78,  106-09, 
115,  120,  128,  131,  133-34,  152-53, 
chap,  ix,  190;  relations  with  Pepin 
and  Charlemagne,  194-97,  200, 
206-10;  in  feudal  period,  262-63, 
268,  271,  274,  276,  chap.  XV,  301- 
04,  354;  and  the  crusades,  311-15, 
320,  322-24,  417;  and  Barbarossa, 
349-53;  and  Italian  bankers,  355; 
and  culture,  387-88  391,  393,  410, 
412, 414;  under  Innocent  III,  chaps, 
xxiii,  xxiv;  and  England,  481-83, 
496,  518-19,  525;  and  France,  491, 
496-98,  502-07,  514,  529;  and  Ger- 
many, 540-41 ;  and  eastern  Europe, 
556,  558;  and  its  opponents,  chap. 
XXX;  and  Italian  politics,  577,  584, 
586,  634-38;  and  Italian  Renais- 
sance, 589-90,  592,  596-97,  611, 
622 

Papal  court,  295-96,  434-36,  438,  458, 
463,  560-61,  566-67,  634 

Papal  infallibility,  288 

Papal  Inquisition,  see  Inquisition 

Papal  patrimony,  under  Gregory  the 
Great,  155 

Papal  States,  197,  208,  265,  567,  573, 
580,  637;  and  see  Patrimony  of  St. 
Peter 

Paper,  introduction  of,  185 

Papinian,  30,  122 

Papyrus,  185 

Paradise,  Mohammedan,  175;  Dante's, 
412-13 

Parallel  passages,  575 

Parchment,  185 

Pardoners  and  Pardons,  see  Indul- 
gences 

Paris,  during  the  invasions,  90,  1 18, 
179,  219;  Capetian,  260,  266-67, 
270, 274, 334,  363-64,  366,  370,  423, 
492-94,  497,  510;  during  the  Hun- 
dred Years  War,  513,  519-21,  524, 
526-27,  529;  University  of,  379,  381, 
385, 389-90,  434,  458,  546,  561,  567; 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  432;  and 
see  Parlement  of  Paris 

Parish,  church  and  priest,  237,  282, 
437-38,  451-52,  484,  562,  564,  569; 
as  a  political  unit,  623 

Parlamento,  348,  483 

Parlement,  of  Paris,  483,  492,  497, 
521,  627 

Parlements,  local,  627 

Parliament,  368,  483-86,  488-90,  498- 
501,  504,  518,  522-25,  533,  538, 
562-63,  565,  627,  629-30 

Parma,  352,  638 

Parsifal,  407 

Parthenon,  558 


Parthian  Kingdom,  40,  53,  69 

Partition  of  fiefs,  245-46,  253 

Party  strife,  in  Italian  cities,  348,  360, 
410,  461,  464,  577;  and  see  Bur- 
gundians,  Orleanists,  Lancastrians, 
Yorkists 

Paschal  II,  Pope,  291 

Fasten  Letters,  630 

Pastoral  Rule,  158,  222 

Patarins,  see  Cathari 

Patriarch,  106-09,  156,  190,  195-96; 
and  see  Alexandria,  Antioch,  Con- 
stantinople, Jerusalem 

Patrician,  title  of,  86,  208,  350 

Patrick,  St.,  111-12,  164 

Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  464 

Patristic  Literature,  21,  65,  92-93, 
95-97,  100,  102,  106,  112-14,  116, 
157-59,  163,  373-74,  381-82,  385, 
397,  593 

Patron  saints,  335 

Patrons,  of  art,  482,  521,  597;  of 
churches,  282,  437;  of  learning  and 
literature,  384,  389,  410,  475,  482, 
521,  594;  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance, 574,  577-78,  585,  592-93, 
603 

Patzinaks  or  Petchenegs,  229-30, 
309,  310 

Paul  the  Apostle,  99-100,  106,  211 

Paul  the  Deacon,  159 

Paulus,  the  Roman  jurist,  122 

Pavia,  85,  265,  352-53,  377;  Council 
of,  ,258 

Paynims,  320 

Peace,  Roman,  27,  29,  98;  German 
tribal,  51;  king's,  268;  in  Flanders, 
269;  Anglo-Saxon  local,  478;  land, 
534,  538;  Castilian  local,  631 

Peace  of  Constance,  see  Constance 

Peasants,  24,  139-40,  232-39,  241, 
243-44,  250,  254,  266,  270,  278-79, 
338, 344, 488, 517, 527, 529-30,  546, 
570, 572, 578, 585,  616,  622-23,  631 ; 
and  see  Emancipation 

"Peasants'  King,"  552 

Peasants'  Revolts,  228,  329,  521,  523- 
24,  531,  562,  564,  617 

Peking,  393-94,  548,  550 

Penalties,  32,  49,  121,  127;  monastic, 
161,  166;  Byzantine,  195-96;  of 
Charlemagne,  202,  206-07;  of  town 
courts,  336,  411;  of  the  Inquisition, 
447;  of  the  Vehm,  534-35;  of  Italian 
despotisms,  578;  of  Louis  XI,  624- 
26;  and  see  Burning  at  the  stake. 
Imprisonment,  Jails 

Penance,  77,  169,  274,  289-90,  298, 
323,  437,  440,  446,  495 

Pendentives,  144 

Penitentials,  169,  440 


INDEX 


671 


Pensions,  583 

People,  Roman,  27-28;  early  German, 
47-48;  Byzantine,  128,  131-33; 
Slavic,  152;  medieval,  313,  347,  409, 
417,  440-42,  444-45,  524;  English, 
459.  522,  563-64.  627,  630;  mob  of 
Paris,  520-21;  French,  527,  625; 
sovereignty  of,  proclaimed,  562; 
Italian,  578,  582,  585,  635;  Spanish, 

631 
Pepin  I,  of  Landen,  193,  198 
Pepin  II,  of  Heristal,  194,  198 
Pepin  III,  King  of  the  Franks,  169, 

179,  194-200,  208,  210 
Pepin  V,  King  of  Aquitaine,  212 
Pepin  VI,  King  of  Aquitaine,  213 
Perfected,  of  the  Cathari,  443 
Perigord,  272,  510 
Perigueux,  376 
Periods  of  history,  13-15;  and  see  Old 

stone  age,   Bronze  age,   Iron  age, 

Middle  Ages,  etc. 
Peronne,  366,  625,  640 
Perpendicular  architecture,  431 
Perpignan,  568 
Persecution,  of  Christians,   100,   104, 

114,  116,  187;  by  Christians,  104- 

06,  124,  133,  138,  444.. 5.61,  564.  632; 

and  see  Heresy,  Inquisition 
Persia,  40,  58,  64,  69,  76,  109,  in,  128, 

134.  139-40.  143,  150,  154.  176-78, 

180-81,  184,  309,  407,  549, 556, 608 
Persian  Gulf,  551,  608 
Persian  language,  10,  407 
Persian  wars,  128,  139,  150 
Personal  character  of  early  German 

law,  52 
Perspective,  601,  604 
Perugia,  566 
Perugino,  598,  605-06 
Petchenegs,  or  Patzinaks,  229-30,  309 
Peter  the  Apostle,  106-07,  I97.  208, 

286,  440 
Peter,  King  of  Bulgaria,  229 
Peter  II,  King  of  Aragon,  445,  455-56, 

488 
Peter  of  Abano,  388,  590 
Peter  the  Hermit,  313-15 
Peter  Lombard,  382,  439 
Peter  Waldo,  see  Waldo 
Peterborough  Cathedral,  423 
Petitions  of  Commons,  485-86,  522 
Petrarch,  96,  560,  576,  587-88,  590, 

593.  596.  598,  601 
Pharaohs,  28 
Philanthropy,  in  Roman  Empire,  27; 

Mohammedan,  185,  188;  medieval, 

281,  440,  450,  495;  and  see  Patrons 
Philip,  King  of  Macedon,  22 
Philip  I,  King  of  France,  267,  270,  314 
Philip  II,  or  Augustus,  321,  444,  457, 


459-60,  463,  466,  493-94,  498,  502, 

508 
Philip  III,  497-98 
Philip  IV,  or  the  Fair,  483,  498-508, 

512,  538 
Philip  V,  502 

Philip  VI,  511-13.  519.  522 
Philip  II,  or  of  Swabia,  Holy  Roman 

Emperor,  461-62,  466 
Philip  of  Dreux,  437 
Philip  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 

525 
Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 

527,  618,  624,  639 
Philip,  Archduke  of  Austria,  632-33 
Philology,  590 
Philopoemen,  21 
Philosophy,  ancient,  21,  24,  31,  61- 

62,   64,   99,    1 12-14,    124-25,    134; 

Mohammedan,  181,  189;  medieval, 

378-82,  384-86,  389,  393,  411,  442, 

606;  and  see  Greek  philosophy 
Phocas,  Byzantine  Emperor,  150,  159 
Phoenicia,  20,  60,  183 
Photius,  148 
Phrygia,  64 
Physics,  22,  386 
Piacenza,  352,  638 
Picards,  389 
Picts,  II,  40,  84,  166 
Piedmont,  580 
Piers,  Romanesque,  420,  423;  Gothic, 

424-25,  431 
Piers,  see  The  Vision  of,  the  Ploughman 
Pietro  Orseolo  II,  Doge  of  Venice,  342 
Pilaster  strips,  421 
Pilate,  Pontius,  296 
Pile  villages,  3-4,  54 
Pilgrims,    Mohammedan,    174,    176; 

Christian,  189,  200,  270,  301,  311- 

12, 318, 320, 326, 366, 441, 492,  504, 

560,  563;  pretended,  516 
Pinnacles,  429,  435 
Piracy,  ancient,  25,  31;  of  Vandals, 

83;  of  Saracens,  189,  226;  medieval, 

238,  329.  342.  345 
Pisa,  313,  318-19,  340-41,  343.  345, 

354,   435,   464,   467,    583-84,   601; 

cathedral  of,  421 ;  Council  of,  567 
Pisano,  see  Niccola 
Pius  II,  Pope,  574 
Placidia,  see  Galia 
Plague,  67, 149,  154-55,  I57.  3^3.  3i6, 

443,  468,  514-16,  518,  570 
Plains  of  Europe,  11-12 
Plantagenet  dynasty,  278,  384,  456- 

57,  460,  492^3 
Plato,  22,  64,  70,  134,  378,  380,  385 
Plessis,  624 
Pliny  the  Elder,  24 
Plotinus,  64-65,  96 


672 


INDEX 


Plough-Penny,  488 

Plumbing,  invention  of,  337-38,  388, 

587 
Plurality,  588 
Plutarch,  2,  38-39,  99,  597 
Po  River,  12,  17,  342 

Podesta,  351-52,  354,  357,  577,  599 
Podiebrad,   George  of.   King  of   Bo- 
hemia, 558,  571,  615 

Poema  del  Cid,  410 
Poet  laureate,  588 

Poetics,  of  Aristotle,  22 

Poetry,  see  Arabian,  Literature,  etc. 

Poggio,  589 

Poisoning,  268,  566,  578,  626,  635 

Poitevins,  260 

Poitiers,  179,  366,  376,  422;  battle  of, 
517,  519-20,  522 

Poitou,  272,  278,  457,  482,  494,  497, 
508,  510,  518 

Poland,  228,  263,  307,  336,  390,  453, 
532,  544-47,  651-53,  556,  558,  561, 
566,  568,  571 

Police,  50,  188,  238,  484,  494 

Politian,  590 

Politics,  5,  24;  and  see  Government 

Politics,  of  Aristotle,  22 

Poll  taxes,  523-24 

Polo  brothers,  344, 394;  and  see  Marco 
Polo 

Polonius,  365 

Polybius,  9,  18 

Polygamy,  57,  172,  174-75,  188 

Pomerania,  307,  546 

Pomerelia,  544,  546 

Pontifex  Maximus,  95 

Pontus  Steppe,  53-54,  139,  229 

Poor  Brethren  of  the  Hospital  of  St. 
John,  see  Hospitalers 

Poor  Catholics,  450 

Poor  Clares,  450 

Poor  priests,  563 

Poor  students,  392 ;  and  see  Poverty 

Popolo,  347,  577,  584 

Population  (including  Depopulation 
and  Overpopulation),  of  Roman 
Empire,  36,  58,  60,  67,  92;  effect  of 
invasions  on,  119;  of  Byzantine 
Africa,  135;  Constantinople,  149; 
Balkan  peninsula,  151;  Slavs,  139, 
228;  Cordova,  185;  Scandinavia, 
217;  in  feudal  period,  236,  249,  301, 
309,  312,  327;  of  medieval  towns, 
328,  334,  341,  367,  370;  England 
and  France,  367;  effect  of  Black 
Death,  515;  effect  of  Hundred  Years 
War,  530;  of  Tabriz,  551;  of  Bur- 
gundian  possessions,  617 

Porphyry,  379 

Portals,  cathedral,  422,  428-29,  433 

Portcullis,  248 


Portolani,  395 

Portrait  painting  and  sculpture,  604- 

05 
Portugal,  303-05,  323,  366,  394,  456, 

566,  574,  608-14,  632-33,  637 
Portuguese  language,  399,  410 
Postal  service,  34,  141,  550 
Poverty,  155,  175,  516-17,  562 
Prcemunire,  Statute  of,  518,  562 
Proesides,  71 

Praetorian  guards,  29,  69 
Praetorian  prefects,  71,  80 
Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges,  573, 

638 
Prague,  University  of,  389,  552,  568; 
Archbishop  of,  571;  and  see  Jerome 
of  Prague 
Prato,  603 

Preaching,  439,  443,446,  562-63,568- 
69,  634;  of  the  friars,  449-51;  and 
see  Sermons 
Precarium,  240-41 
Predestination,  564 
Pregadi,  581 
Prehistoric  period,  3-4 
Premonstratensians,  298,  308 
Premontre,  298 
Presbyter,  100 
Presentation,  right  of,  282 
Pressburg,  Treaty  of,  615 
Prevot,  or  provost,  268,  363,  492,  494 
Prices,  70,  332-33.  336,  516,  603,  608 
Priesthood,  Oriental  and  Greek,  21; 

early  German,  48-49;  Roman,  95; 

Jewish,  98;  Christian,  105,  439-41, 

564 
Primate,  296 
Primogeniture,  241,  533 
Prince,  The,  of  Machiavelli,  578-80, 

596,  635,  640 
Prince  of  Wales,  488,  519;  and  see 

Black  Prince 
Printing,  invention  of,  16,  391,  587, 

594-95 
Priories,  Cluniac,  281-82 
Priors,  Six,  of  Florence,  410,  584 
Private  war,  263,  520,  534,  538,  631; 

and  see  Feudalism 
Privileged  towns,  358,  363 
Privileges,  academic,  391 ;  of  crusaders, 

323;  and  see  Clergy 
Privy  Council,  492 
Procopius,  130,  140,  145-46,  149,  153; 

and  see  Secret  History 
Prophecy,  Hebrew,  98 ;  early  German, 

46,  400;  early  Christian,    100-01; 

Mohammed  and,  174-75;  549.  607, 

635-36 
Prose,  earliest  medieval,  399;  sagas, 

401 ;  first  French,  409;  Spanish,  410; 

English,  563 


INDEX 


673 


Jr'rotestantism,  5-6,  15,  299,  443,  544, 

563,  573-74.  639 
Prouille,  450 
Provengal    language    and    literature, 

272-73.  399.  404-05.  410-11 

Provence,  90,  118,  136,  213,  261,  271, 
303,  357,  442,  467.  482,  496-97,  586, 
626-27,  634 

Provinces,  Roman,  29,  39,  61,  68, 
chap,  v;  medieval  survivals  of,  114, 
121,  474;  French,  502,  521 

Provincial  estates,  see  Estates 

Provins,  364 

Provisions  or  Provisors,  papal,  471; 
Statute  of,  518,  562 

Provisions  of  Oxford,  482 

Prussia,  260,  323,  537,  540,  544,  546; 
and  see  East,  and  West 

Psalmist,  quoted,  429 

Psalter,  210 

Psellus,  148,  309 

Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals,  280 

Psychology,  of  the  past,  6;  early  Ger- 
mans, 44-45;  early  medieval,  159; 
monastic,  162;  Oriental,  172;  North- 
men, 216-17;  troubadours,  404-05, 
of  thirteenth  and  sixteenth  centu- 
ries, 639 

Ptolemy,  23,  413,  589 

Ptolemies,  28 

Public  debt,  343,  583 

Pulci,  593 

Purgatory,  412-13,  440-41.  564 

Purple,  20,  34,  229 

Pyrenees,  17,  43,  79,  90,  179,  200,  266- 
67,  272-73,  278,  303-04,  367,  632, 
634.  638 

Pythagoras,  21 

Quadi,  53,  79 

Querci,  510 

Questions  about  Nature,  383 

Quinisext  or  Trullan  Council,  195 

Race,  9-1 1,  53;  in  southern  Italy,  196; 

and  feudal  states,  232,  258-60,  348; 

570,  611;  and  see  Invasions 
Ramon     (Raymond)     Berengar     IV, 

Count  of  Barcelona  and  Provence, 

303 

Ransom,  feudal,  243,  250,  322,  517 

Raoul  Glaber,  375-76 

Raphael  of  Urbino,  605-07 

Raspe,  Heinrich,  470 

Ravenna,  80,  82-83,  87,  121;  Arch- 
bishop of,  157,  290;  churches  of,  126, 
129, 146-47,  212,420-21;  Exarchate 
of,  136,  155-57,  171,  195-96,  462 

Raymond  Berengar,  see  Ramon 

Raymond  Berengar  V,  Count  of  Pro- 
vence, 496 


Raymond  IV,  Count  of  Toulouse,  314; 

318 
Raymond  VI,  444-45 
Raymond  VII,  445-46,  497 
Reading,  historical,  7-9,  and  close  of 

every  chapter 
Realism,  379-80,  426,  432,  601-05 
Red  Sea,  172,  318-19,  322,  551,  608- 

09 
Reform   movements  in   the   Church, 

282-85,  289,  291-92,  298,  300,  435- 

36,  452,  546,  563-65,  567-70,  572- 

74.  607,  631,  634-36 
Reformation,  593,  595,  639 
Regalia,  351,  353  _ 

Reginald,  sub-prior  of  Canterbury, 
458 

Reichenau,  376 

Reichstag,  of  Denmark,  488;  of  Ger- 
many, see  Diet 

Relics  of  saints  and  martyrs,  158-59, 
195,  197,  226,  274,  297-98,  441,  478 

Relief,  feudal,  241,  243,  257,  480 

Religion,  history  of,  4-5;  nature  and, 
12;  of  city-state,  25;  Roman,  29- 
30,  97,  115;  early  German,  45,  48, 
400-01;  change  in  Roman  Empire, 
61-65,  74,  99;  of  German  kingdoms 
in  West,  120;  of  early  Arabia,  172; 
and  civilization,  65,  164,  313,  324, 
530,  605;  and  see  Christianity, 
Church,  Clergy,  Crusades,  Heresy, 
Mohammedanism,  Monasteries,  Pa- 
ganism, Wars  of,  etc. 

Renaissance,  see  Italian,  "Carolin- 
gian" 

Rene,  King,  of  Anjou  or  Provence, 
586,  626,  634 

Representation,  26,  479-86,  488-90, 
494.  572,  615 

Republics,  Italian,  578-80,  584-85, 
590 

Retainers,  627 

Rethel,  County  of,  525,  616 

Revelation,  Book  of,  103 

Revenue,  see  Taxation 

Reynard  the  Fox,  Romance  of,  407-08, 

415 
Rhaetia,  53,  84,  136 
Rheims,  366,  375-76,  524,  528;  Arch- 
bishop of,  270,  436;  cathedral  of, 
420,  430,  432 
Rhenish  architecture,  422,  431 
Rhetoric,  in  late  Latin  literature,  92- 

93,  96,  124,  374-75,  383,  416,  590 
Rhine  League  of  cities,  369,  539,  541 
Rhine  River,  11-12,  17,  23,  42-43,  54, 

75.  78-79,  88,  1 18-19,  167-68,  194, 
209, 213, 247,  266,  314,  328,  366-69, 
398,  422,  430-31,  621;  and  see 
Rhenish,  Palatinate 


674 


INDEX 


Rhodes,  150,  177,  559 

Rhone  River,  12,  17,  82,  88,  90,  179, 

213,  216,  261,  271-72,  367, 506, 519, 

538 
Rhyme,  403-04 
Rialto,  342 
Richard  I,  or  Coeur  de  Lion,  King  of 

England,  321-22,  437,  457-58,  462, 

475.  479,  493 
Richard  II,  511.  523-25,  565 
Richard  III,  628 
Richard,  brother  of    Pope   Innocent 

III,  463-64 
Richard     of     Cornwall,    brother    of 

Henry  III  of  England,  496,  537 
Richmond,  Earl  of,  see  Henry  VII  of 

England 
Ricimer,  86 

Riga,  544 

Right  of  spoil,  463 

Rigord,  493 

Rimini,  353,  580 

Ripuarian  Franks,  88-90,  119,  121, 
213 

Ritual,  of  Oriental  cults  in  Roman 
Empire,  63-64;  early  Christian, 
loi ;   simplicity   of   Mohammedan, 

175 
Rivers,  of  Europe,   11-12;  as  trade- 
routes,  329 
Roads,  Roman,  32,  366;  medieval,  348 
Robber  barons  and  knights,  249,  302, 

329,  408,  437,  442,  534 
Robber  Council,  see  Ephesus 
Robbia,  Luca  della,  603 
Robert  the  Strong,  Count  of  Paris, 

219 
Robert  I,  King  of  France,  270 
Robert  of  Flanders,  270 
Robert  the  Devil,  Duke  of  Normandy, 

275 
Robert,  son  of  William  the  Conqueror, 

Duke  of  Normandy,  480 
Robert  Guiscard,  ruler  of  Sicily  and 

southern  Italy,  289,  291,  302,  310, 

312,  377,  384 
Robert,  Count  of  Artois,  brother  of 

Louis  IX,  497 
Robert  of  Geneva,  see  Pope  Clement 

VII 
Robert,  King  of  Naples,  588 
Rochelle,  La,  battle  of,  522 
Roderick,  King  of  the  West  Goths, 

179 
Roger  Bacon,  see  Bacon 
Roger  Guiscard,  312 
Roger  II,  King  of  Sicily,  383-84 
Roland,  402,  593;  and  see  Song  of 
Rollo,  Duke  of  Normandy,  219,  275 
Romagna,  461,  464,  637 
Roman  Catholic,  6,  16,  115,  120,  135, 


193,  282,  386,  411,  452,  454,  550, 
556,  566,  569,  571,  639;  and  see 
Church,  Papacy 

Romance,  3,  311 

Romance  languages,  251,  399,  401- 
02,  407,  409,  418 

Romance  peoples,  225 

Romance  of  the  Rose,  408,  411,  415 

Romances,  Arabian,  182;  medieval, 
198,  211,  251,  321,  402-03,  406-08, 
410,  415,  515;  Italian,  593 

Roman  de  Rou,  219 

Roman  Empire,  civilization,  13,  chap, 
ii;  compared  with  early  German 
civilization,  40-50,  62;  decline  of, 
15, 54,  chap,  iv,  85-86, 90, 109, 1 13; 
barbarians  and,  23,  40,  53-55,  61, 
chaps.  V,  vii;  and  Christianity,  64, 
95,  100,  102-08;  influence  upon  and 
comparison  with  the  Middle  Ages, 
114-15,  117, 131, 139, 164, 181,  190, 
198-99,  205,  209,  212,  233-34,  238, 
249,  257,  282,  285,  291,  293,  301, 
327-29,  348,  368,  387,  393,  397-99, 
416,  418-19,  435,  474,  477,  493,  554, 
577,  590,  616,   621 

Romanesque  architecture,  147,  418- 
25,  431,  433,  586,  599 

Romanic,  see  Romanesque 

Roman  law,  27,  30-31,  39,  48,  50,  70, 
86,  115;  in  early  Middle  Ages,  122- 
23,  240,  272,  294;  revival  of,  351, 
377,  381,  390,  393.  475-76,  491, 
586-87,  589 

Roman  numerals,  183,  386 

Romantic  epic,  see  Romances 

Romantic  love,  403 

Romantic  movement  in  literature, 
424 

Rome,  Bishop  of,  see  Papacy 

Rome,  Church  of,  see  Church 

Rome,  city  of,  early  history,  4,  26-28, 
52,  54,  81,  97,  115;  imperial,  2,  29, 
34-36,  54,  69;  sacked  by  Alaric,  80- 
81,  95-97,  1 12-13,  115,  291;  sacked 
by  the  Vandals,  83,  85,  291 ;  medie- 
val, 126, 133, 135,  149,  154-56,  160, 
172,  196,  200,  207-09,  212-13,  226, 
260, 265, 280, 285-86, 289-90 ;  sacked 
by  the  Normans,  291,  300;  295,  302, 
322;  commune,  350;  355;  romances 
of,  406-07;  churches  of,  421;  under 
Innocent  III,  435,  445,  450,  452, 
455,  462-64;  in  the  later  Middle 
Ages,  467,  503-06,  518,  541,  548, 
560-61,  565-66;  during  the  Renais- 
sance, 588,  597,  599-600,  603,  607, 

635 
Romulus,  Roman  Emperor,  86 
Roncaglia,  Diet  of,  351,  354,  377 
Roncesvalles,  402 


INDEX 


675 


Roofs,   basilican,    146;    Romanesque, 

420;   at   Pisa,   421;    Rhenish,   422; 

Norman,  423;  English,  431 ;  and  see 

Vaulting 
Roosebek,  battle  of,  524 
Ros,  224 

Rose,  see  Romance  of 
Rose  window,  428-30 
Roses,  see  Wars  of  the 
Rosetta,  608 

Rothenburg  on  the  Tauber,  340 
Rouen,  219,  340,  364,  524,  529;  cathe- 
dral of,  432 
Rouergue,  510 

Roumania,  39,  151,  229,  554,  556 
Round  Table,  of  King  Arthur,  406 
Rousseau,  96 
Roussillon,  273,  634 
Royal  courts,  268,  277,  296-97,  336, 

476,  497,  523 
Royal  domain,  193,  267,  275,  288,  477, 

493-94,  497,  5o8,  625,  627 
Royal  grants  of  land,  240,  256,  267, 

276,  303 
Royal  writs,  476 
Roye,  366 

Rudder,  invention  of,  345,  487 
Rudolf   of   Hapsburg,    Holy    Roman 

Emperor,  637-38,  541-42 
Riigen,  Island  of,  305 
Ruins,  2-4,  32-33,  36,  135,  246,  249, 

261,  416,  557,  599 
Rules,  monastic,  96,  lio-ii,  160-62, 

166,  168,  171 
Runes,  44 

Rupert,  imperial  claimant,  439 
Rural  communes,  362-63,  541 
Rural  deans,  438 

Rurik,  Grand  Prince  of  Russia,  224 
Russ,  see  Ros 
Russia,  11-12,  14,  40,  58,  139-40,  183- 

84,  223-26,  229-31,  233,  308,  369, 

393,  543-44,  548-49,  551-52,  568, 

608 
Rustication,  600 

Saale  River,  398 

Sabbath,  Jewish,  99;  Christian,  160 

Sacraments,  of  Oriental  cults,  63-64; 
Christian,  101,  439-42,  452,  454, 
562,  564,  572 

Sacrosancta,  572 

Safe  conduct,  569,  625 

Sagas,  42,  216-17,  230,  401,  415 

Sages,  Sixteen,  of  Venice,  581 

Sahara  Desert,  328 

Saints,  veneration  of,  158;  patron, 
335;  statues  of,  337;  of  Italian 
cities,  371;  days,  392;  in  Gothic 
art,  426-29;  of  Joan  of  Arc,  528; 
Louis  XI  and,  624 


St.  Gall,  167,  542,  589 

St.  George,  of  Donatello,  604 

St.  Gotthard  Pass,  542 

St.  James,  shrine  of,  see  Compostella 

St.  Mark,  church  of,  148,  343,  599 

St.  Martin,  church  of,  164 

St.  Ouen,  church  of,  432 

St.  Paul,  church  of,  226 

St.  Peter,  church  of,  200,  208,  226-27, 
455-56,  462,  600-01 

St.  Pol,  Count  of,  625-26 

St.  Quentin,  360 

St.  Sebaldus  Kirche,  539 

St.  Sophia,  church  of,  134,  143-46, 
195,  558,  601 

St.  Truth,  517 

Saintonge,  494,  508,  510 

Saladin,  321,  469 

Salerno,  291,  377 

Salian  Franks,  88-90,  119,  213 

Salic  law,  122-23,  127,  211 

Saloniki,  77,  229,  314,  557 

Salvian,  93-94,  238 

Salzburg,  167 

Samaria,  99 

Samarkand,  185,  551,  557 

Samnites,  53 

San  Gemignano,  340 

San  Salvador,  610 

San  Vitale,  church  of,  147,  212 

Sanitation  in  medieval  towns,  337-38 

Sanskrit,  10 

Sant'  Angelo,  castle  of,  291 

Sant'  Apollinare  in  Classe,  church  of, 
146 

Sant'  Apollinare  Nuovo,  church  of,  146 

Saone  River,  88 

Sappho,  21 

Saracens,  172,  189,  192,  2l6,  226-27, 
232,  265,  30i-«2,  308,  312-13,  316, 
318,  342,  383,  402,  467;  and  see  Mo- 
hammedans, Moslems,  Paynims 

Saragossa,  189 

Sardika,  Council  of,  107 

Sardinia,  83,  118,  135-36,  155,  313, 
342,  464,  470 

Sarmatians,  53-54,  58 

Sarto,  Andrea  del,  598 

Satire,  medieval,  392,  404,  408-09, 
516-17 

Satires,  of  Juvenal,  39 

Saumur,  274 

Savages,  5,  13-14 

Savonarola,  607,  634-36,  640 

Savoy, 88, 271,  435,  482,  620,  624,  626 

Saxons,  in  England,  85,  118,  164,  166- 
67,  202;  on  the  Continent,  122,  194, 
198-204,  206, 212-14,  289,  323,  375, 
435,  552;  and  see  Anglo-Saxons 

Saxony,  Duchy  of,  227,  262,  305,  349, 
533,  540,  616 


676 


INDEX 


Scaliger,  House  of,  580 

Scanderbeg,  558 

Scandinavia,  lo-ii,  40-41,  192,  217, 
224-25,  301,  398,  448,  453,  546-47, 
561,  566 

Scenery,  outside  castle  and  town,  249, 
338;  in  Giotto's  paintings,  602; 
Italian,  605;  and  see  Landscape 

Schaffhausen,  340 

Scheldt,  119 

Scheltberger,  Hans,  557 

Schisms,  religious,  108-09,  I34;  papal, 
285, 287, 290-91,  297,  299,  352,  540, 
565-68 

Scholasticism,  381-82,  393,  515,  563, 
589-90,  592 

Schools,  see.Education,  Learning,  Uni- 
versities 

Schwyz,  canton  of,  541-42 

Science,  and  history,  3;  Hellenistic, 
23;  scientific  character  of  Roman 
law,  30;  and  Christianitv,  1 12-14, 
159,  168;  Koran  and,  181;  Anglo- 
Saxon,  223;  medieval,  375,  379,  383, 
385-89,  393.  396, 408,  413,  442,  587, 
599,  606,  611 

Scipio  Africanus,  588 

Scotch  Highlands,  398 

Scotch-Irish,  6 

Scotland,  11-12,  40,  166,  168,  220, 
225,  276,  278,  484-85,  487-88,  499, 
503-04,  512,  514,  566-68,  623 

Scots,  84,  166 

Scriptorium,  163 

"Scrutiny,"  585 

Sculpture,  ancient,  2,  21-25,  32;  its 
decline,  66,  95;  early  Christian, 
113;  Byzantine,  147-48;  Gothic, 
426-30;  other  medieval,  248,  337, 
408,  422-23,  432-33;  Renaissance, 
587,  598-607,  636 

Scutari,  558 

Scythians,  53-54,  58  , 

Sea  power,  see  Shipping 

Second  Crusade,  320-21,  323,  492 

Secret  History,  of  Procopius,  128-31, 

135,  141.  . 
Secular  spirit,  rise  of,  373 
Seigneur,  235,  275 
Seigneurial  exploitation  and  regime, 

235,  241,  277,  363 
Seine  River,  12,  17,  219,  266,  275,  363- 

64,  513,  526 
Self-help,  50-51,  127,  535 
Seljuk  Turks,  309-10,  313,  318,  549 
Semitic,  177 
Sempach,  battle  of,  542 
Senate,   Roman,  26-28,  86,  95,   121, 

125;  in  medieval  Italian  towns,  343, 

347,  350,  581 
Seneca,  24,  65,  374 


Senegal,  278,  609 

Seneschals,  507-10 

Senlac,  battle  of,  276 

Senlis,  266-67,  5io 

Sens,  510 

Sentences,  of  Peter  Lombard,  382,  439 

Septimania,  90,  179,  200,  213 

Serbia,  229,  453,  455,  549,  554-58 

Serbs,  151-52,  308 

Serena,  404 

Serfdom,  47,   73,  93,    123,   155,    187, 

210, 233-38, 241,  246, 259, 277, 301, 

305,  486,  523,  534,  546,  572;  and 

see  Coloni,  Emancipation 
Sermons,  8,  65,  157-58,  495;  and  see 

Preaching 
Servia,  see  Serbia 
Seven  crusades,  321 
Seven  deadly  sins,  413 
Seven  electors,  see  Electors 
Seven  liberal  arts,  124 
Seven  planets,  413 
Seven  sacraments,  439 
Severinus,  St.,  11,  116 
Seville,  125,  186,  189,  304,  328 
Sforza,  Francesco,  580 
Sforza,  Lodovico,  634,  636 
Sheriff,  221,  277,  477,  492,  627 
Shetland  Islands,   12,   166,  220,  276, 

395 

Shipping,  ancient,  19,  34,  73;  of  the 
barbarians,  44,  54,  83,  151;  Mo- 
hammedan, 184,  186;  Northmen, 
218;  medieval,  226-27,  3^3,  3i8, 
322,  325,  341-43,  345-46,  364,  367, 
465,  467-68,  513,  522,  543-44,  581, 
583;  in  the  Atlantic,  394-95,  5ii, 
608-11,  617;  and  see  Piracy 

Shires,  221,  276-77,  476,  478-79,  481, 
484,  488 

Shops,  35,  184-85,  338-39 

Siam,  393 

Sib,  47,  52 

Siberia,  56,  557 

Sibyls,  607;  and  see  Erythrean 

Sic  et  Nan,  381-82 

Sicilian  Vespers,  471,  499 

Sicily,  ancient,  19-20,  23,  26,  60;  dur- 
ing the  invasions,  81,  83,  118;  By- 
zantine, 133,  136,  138,  154-55,  157, 
196,  209;  Mohammedan,  180,  216, 
226-27,  313;  Norman,  225-26,  289, 
302,  312;  miscellaneous  references, 
260, 321, 324, 341, 343,  383-84,  401, 
410,  497;  Kingdom  of,  302,  461-63, 
466-73,  482,  496,  586,  626,  630 

Sidonius  Apollinaris,  124 

Siebenbiirgen,  308 

Siegfried,  401 

Siena,  286,  354,  584,  603,  605 

Sierra  Leone,  609 


INDEX 


677 


Sigismund,  Holy  Roman  Emperor, 
539-41,  553,  556,  567-71,  603,  615 

Sigismund  of  Hapsburg,  621 

Signorelli,  605 

Silesia,  307,  551-52 

Silk,  149,  383 

Silverius,  Pope,  133 

Simon  Magus,  284 

Simon  de  Montfort,  445,  450 

Simon  de  Montfort,  son  of  the  above, 
483-84 

Simony,  283-85,  287,  292,  471,  504, 
562-63 

Sinai,  Mount,  608 

Sion,  bishop  of,  542 

Siricius,  Pope,  107 

Sirmium,  151 

Sistine  Chapel,  606-07 

Sites  of  castles  and  towns,  247,  328- 

29,  337 

Sixtus  IV,  Pope,  607 

Skaldic  poetry,  42 

Skeletons,  4,  43 

Skulls,  3,  9-10;  towers  of,  557 

Slavery,  ancient,  26,  31,  35-37,  63,  67; 
among  early  Germans,  43,  47,  52; 
among  nomads,  57;  invasions  and, 
91,  112,  123;  early  medieval,  155, 
164;  among  Arabs,  172,  174-75, 
178,  185,  187,  189;  Slavs  and  slave- 
trade,  225,  228,  345;  233,  360,  370, 

551.  557 

Slavs,  10,  40,  87,  117,  139-40,  150-51. 
153, 189, 199,  202,  216,  224-25,  228, 
262-63,  305,  307,  323,  398 

Slavonians,  314 

Slavonic  languages,  Scriptures  in, 
152,  224 

Sloth,  Sin  of,  563 

Sluys,  battle  of,  513 

Social  conditions,  Roman  Empire,  37- 
38;  early  Germans,  43-44,  46-47; 
Asiatic  nomads,  56-57;  declining 
Empire,  66-68,  72-73,  77-78,  91- 
94;  early  Christians,  100,  103;  Ger- 
man kingdoms,  123,  126;  Byzan- 
tine, 132,  141,  148-49,  152-53; 
monasteries,  161-63;  early  Ara- 
bian, 172;  Mohammedan,  178,  181- 
82,  184-89;  Prankish,  212;  early 
Norse,  217-18;  manorial,  237;  feu- 
dal, 249-53,  272,  325;  in  towns,  346- 
48, 357, 360, 365-66, 371 ;  as  reflected 
in  literature,  404-06,  408,  516-17; 
in  Germany,  616;  in  Spain,  631-32 

Socialism,  616;  and  see  Peasants'  Re- 
volts 

Societies,  30,  35,  104,  335;  learned, 
590;  religious,  598 

Sociology,  5 

Socrates,  22,  70,  382 


Sofia,  556 

Soil,  exhaustion  of,  60 

Soissons,  90,  118,  362,  372 

Somerset,  House  of,  628 

Somme  River,  88,  513,  526,  620,  626 

Song  of  Roland,  200,  402-03,  415 

Sonnet,  origin  of,  410,  588,  593 

Sorbian  Mark,  203 

Sorbs,  305-06 

Sources,  historical,  2-4,  7,  20;  for 
Roman  Empire,  33,  38-39;  for 
early  Germans,  41-42;  for  decline 
of  Rome,  60,  68-70,  72,  74;  for 
Oriental  cults,  64;  for  German  in- 
vasions and  kingdoms,  94,  1 18-19; 
Byzantine,  130,  148,  309;  for  Slavic 
settlements  in  the  Balkan  penin- 
sula, 151;  monastic,  162-63;  about 
Mohammed,  172-73;  Carolingian, 
194,  198-99;  for  early  Russia,  224; 
for  early  Balkan  states,  229;  for  life 
of  peasants,  237;  for  the  year  1075, 
289;  for  the  crusades,  310-11;  for 
the  rise  of  towns,  327-28;  about 
Innocent  III,  434;  for  the  Cathari, 
442;  for  St.  Francis  and  St.  Domi- 
nic, 448,  454;  for  political  geography 
of  medieval  France,  510;  for  Hun- 
dred Years  War,  513;  after  the 
Black  Death,  516;  for  Swiss  confed- 
eration, 541 ;  Venetian,  583;  Floren- 
tine, 594;  for  artists  of  the  Renais- 
sance, 597-98,  606;  for  voyages  of 
discovery,  609 

South  America,  610 

Southampton,  368 

South  Seas,  189 

Spain  and  the  Spanish  peninsula,  4, 
lo-ii,  14-15,  19;  Roman,  23,  34; 
53-54.  79.  81,  83,  86,  90-91,  96,  1 1 1 ; 
Visigothic,  chap,  vii,  160,  169;  By- 
zantine, 128,  138,  150;  Mohamme- 
dan, 178-80,  182-90,  198,  200,  209, 
212,  223,  227;  feudal,  270-73,  287; 
Christian  expansion  in,  302-05,  312, 
320,  323-34;  towns  and  trade,  327- 
28,  336,  358,  366;  learning  in,  384, 
387,  389,  395;  language  and  litera- 
ture, 399,  401-02,  410;  Gothic  art 
in,  430;  in  the  time  of  Innocent  III, 
448,  450,  453,  466;  pilgrimage  of 
Louis  VII  to,  492;  in  the  later  Mid- 
dle Ages,  506,  522,  550,  561,  567-68, 
574,  609-12,  614,  630-33 

Spanish  Inquisition,  448 

Spanish  language,  126,  399,  410 

Spanish  March,  200,  203,  213,  273 

Sparta,  25,  79,  140 

Speaker  of  House  of  Commons,  522 

Spectacles,  see  Amphitheaters,  Amuse- 
ments, Circus,  Eye-glasses 


678 


INDEX 


Speyer,  368,  422 

Spice  Islands,  611 

Spices,  342,  409,  611 

Spiritual  Franciscans,  561 

Spoleto,  Duchy  of,  156,  169,  171,  196, 
462 

Squires,  252 

Stabat  Mater,  392 

Stained  glass,  424,  426-28,  430,  432- 
33,  435.  587,  601 

Stamford  Bridge,  battle  of,  276 

Stanze,  of  Raphael,  607 

Staple,  Statute  of  the,  518 

Star  Chamber,  Court  of,  629 

Statistics,  583 

Statutes,  484;  and  see  Laborers, 
Prozmunire,  Provisors,  Staple,  Trea- 
son, De  hceretico  comburendo,  etc. 

Steelyard,  543 

Stephen,  King  of  England,  278,  293, 

474-75 

Stephen,  St.,  King  of  Hungary,  228, 
301,  456 

Stephen  VI,  King  of  Serbia,  554 

Stilicho,  77-80,  82,  85-86 

Stoics,  22,  31,  62,  97,  99,  115 

Stourbridge,  368 

Strassburg,  growth  of  commune,  368- 
70.  538;  cathedral,  430,  432 

Strassburg  Oaths,  211,  399 

Streets,  of  ancient  city,  25-26,  36;  of 
Bagdad,  184-85;  for  Slavs  in  Ger- 
man towns,  307;  gilds  and,  331;  of 
the  medieval  town,  337-38,  340; 
fights  in,  348;  of  "New  Towns," 
363;  paving,  367,  494;  of  German 
towns,  368 

Stubbs,  Bishop,  quoted,  511,  639 

Student  life,  392,  396 

Sttidium  and  studium  generate,  390 

Style,  literary,  589-90 

Styria,  307,  537-38 

Suabia,  see  Swabia 

Subinfeudation,  244-45,  253,  257,  259 

Sub- vassals,  245,  257,  259,  268,  271, 

274-75,  277 
Suetonius,  39,  103 
Suevi,  79,  81,  91,  118 
Suger,  Abbot,  267-68 
Suidas,  148 
Sulla,  70 

Sultan,  309-10,  344,  468,  549,  554 
Sumatra,  393 
Sun-worship,  70,  72,  106 
Superstition,     ancient,     33,    39,     64; 

early  German,  127;  Norse,  216-17; 

in  Italian  cities,  371;  in  medieval 

learning,  387;  of  Louis  XI,  624,  629 
Sussex,  220 
Swabia,  262,  539,  541;  and  see  Ala- 

mannia 


Swabian  Alps,  540 

Swabian  league  of  cities,  539,  541 

Sweden  and  Swedes,  40,  217-18,  223- 
24,  228,  369,  532,  543,  546 

Swein,  King  of  Denmark  and  Eng- 
land, 275 

Swiss,  Swiss  Confederation,  and  Swit- 
zerland, 167,  340,  532,  537,  541-42, 
547,  568,   620-23,  626, 631,  637-39 

Sworn  inquest,  205-06,  222,  477-78 

Syagrius,  88-90,  118 

Sylvester  I,  Pope,  198 

Sylvester  II,  375;  and  see  Gerbert 

Symbolism  in  Christian  art,  113,  148, 
432,  601-02 

Symbols  of  ecclesiastical  office,  284 

Symeon,  King  of  Bulgaria,  229 

Symeon  Stylites,  111-12 

Sympathetic  attitude  in  history,  6, 
489,  590-91 

Synesius  of  Cyrene,  106 

Synod  of  Whitby,  167;  for  other  sy- 
nods, see  Church  councils 

Syracuse,  26,  226 

Syria,  19,  23,  64,  79,  iii;  Byzantine, 
143,  150-51;  Mohammedan,  176- 
77,  180-81,  184,  190;  during  the 
crusades,  308-09,  313,  316-18,  320- 
22,  324-26,  357,  401,  453,  465-66, 

549,  554,  557 
Syriac,  182,  407 
Syrians,    181;    in    Bagdad,    184;    in 

Spain,  187;  Christian,  320 

Taboo,  4,  175 

Taborites,  569-72 

Tabor,  Mount,  570-71 

Tabriz,  550 

Tacitus.  41-49,  53,  58,  66,  103,  252 

Taille,  623,  629 

Tamerlane,  see  Timur 

Tarik,  178-79 

Tarsus,  150 

Tartars,  58,  224,  548,  550,  557;  and 
see  Mongols 

Tasso,  593 

Taxation,  5;  Roman,  29,  34,  66,  71, 
73,  91-92,  105,  155;  German,  49, 
121-22;  Byzantine,  135,  141,  195; 
prankish,  193,  203-04;  Moham- 
medan, 177-78,  186-87;  in  Scan- 
dinavia, 218,  546;  feudal,  257;  Nor- 
man, 277,  479;  in  towns,  334,  362- 
64,  367,  498,  582,  585;  in  Sicily, 
469;  papal,  455-56,  471,  496,  560- 
61,  567,  573;  English,  481-82,  485, 
518,  523-24,  629;  French,  494,  496, 
498-503,  519-21,  524,  623;  by  Es- 
tates, 488;  German,  533,  538,  540, 
615,  622 ;  Mongol,  551 ;  Burgundian, 
617-18 


INDEX 


679 


Teaching  of  history,  8 

Tell,  William,  541 

Templars,  303,  320,  494,  500-01,  506- 

07 
Temples,  Greek,  21,  25,  33,  113,  600; 

Roman,  33;  heathen,  160,  166 
Tenants-in-chief,  297,  479-80,  501 
Terence,  24,  374 
Terra-cottas,  603 
Testaments,  law  of,  52,  294 
Testry,  battle  of,  194 
Teutones,  42,  53 
Teutonic  folk  epic,  400-01 
Teutonic  languages,  10,  55,  170,  211, 

398-99 

Teutonic  races,  217 

Teutonic  Knights,  308,  323,  532,  537, 
544-47.  552,  608 

Teutons,  397,  570 

Thales  of  Miletus,  21 

Theater,  ancient,  25,  33;  Christian 
attitude  toward,  93,  97;  Byzantine, 
132 

Thebes,  407 

Thegns,  240,  276,  400,  478 

Themistocles,  21 

Theocritus,  21 

Theodora,  Byzantine  Empress,  129- 
33,  147 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  167 

Theodoric,  King  of  the  West  Goths,  85 

Theodoric,  King  of  the  East  Goths, 
87,  90,  94,  109,  chap,  vii,  129,  342 

Theodosian  Code,  72-74,  82,  91,  105, 
131,  142,  293 

Theodosian  dynasty,  107 

Theodosius,  general  under  Valen- 
tinian  I,  75-76 

Theodosius  I,  or  the  Great,  Roman 
Emperor,  76-79,  85,  123 

Theodosius  II,  72,  80,  82,  84,  131 

Theology,  124,  128,  134;  Moslem, 
181-82,  189;  206,  211,  309,  374, 
380-83,  385-86,  389,  411,  434,  437- 
38;  friars  and,  451;  decline  in,  515, 
589,  592,  635;  and  see  Patristic  lit- 
erature 

Theophilus,  the  monk,  427 

Thermopylae,  84 

Thessalonica  (and  see  Saloniki),  77- 
78,  466 

Thessaly,  310,  554,  556 

Theve,  la,  266 

Thietmar,  342,  375 

Third  Crusade,  321-22,  462,  493 

Thrace,  76-77,  79,  151,  229,  310,  465 

Thuringians,  88,  122,  194,  213 

Thurout,  366 

Tiber  River,  52,  80,  462 

Tibet,  393,  407 

Tigris-Euphrates,  20,  40,  172 


Tigris  River,  177,  184-85 

Timur,  556-57,  559,  608 

Tin,  48,  337 

Titus  Flamininus,  see  Flamininus 

Tiu,  45,  48 

Toledo,  179,  187-89,  302,  312 

Toleration,  30,  177,  187-88,  303,  320, 

551,  558 

Tolls,  258,  307,  319,  348,  351,  358, 
372,  467 

Tome,  of  Pope  Leo  the  Great,  108 

Tortona,  350 

Tortosa,  186 

Torture,  32,  38,  114,  123-24,  447,  506, 
629 

Toscanelli,  610 

Tostig,  276 

Totila,  King  of  the  East  Goths,  136 

Toulouse,  town  and  county,  81,  260, 
272, 358,  444-46,  450,  456,  492,  497. 
510.  517 

Touraine,  457,  494.  497.  5o8 

Tournai,  88,  366,  422,  498 

Tournaments,  238,  252,  324 

Tours,  109,  III,  119,  125,  159,  179, 
218,  366,  510 

Towers,  Roman,  33;  at  Ravenna,  83, 
146;  along  south  Italian  coast,  226; 
feudal,  239,  247;  Norman,  277;  of 
medieval  towns,  335,  339,  348,  353, 
464,  600;  Romanesque,  421-23; 
Gothic,  428,  431-33;  Early  English, 
430;  human,  of  Timur,  557;  and  see 
Campanile 

Town-halls,  339,  353-54 

Towns,  218,  220,  226,  261,  272,  301, 
306-08,  311,  318-19,  324-25,  chaps, 
xvii,  rviii,  xix,  408,  434,  441-42, 
444, 461,  532,  535,  537-39.  552.  587, 
599,  616-17,  621-23,  631;  and  see 
City-state,  Communes,  Estates, 
Leagues  of,  Parliament,  Walled 
towns 

Trade,  see  Commerce 

Trade  routes,  12,  366,  550-51.  608, 
611-12 

Trajan,  35,  66,  435 

Transepts,  147,  chap,  xxii 

Transubstantiation,  380,  439,  564 

Transylvania,  308-09 

Transylvanian  Alps,  548 

Travel,  history  and,  6-7,  9;  29,  34, 
183,  192-93.  249.  252,  324.  376,  383, 
393-94,  442,  516-17,  550,  557,  608, 
624 

Treason,  533,  583 

Treason,  Statute  of,  518 

Treaties,  213,  286-87,  512,  620,  633: 
and  see  Arras,  Bretigny,  Corbeil, 
Mersen,  Paris,  Pressburg,  Troyes, 
Verdun 


680 


INDEX 


Trebizond,  344,  550,  554,  558 
Treves,  88,  94,  212,  620;  Archbishop 

of,  532 
Treviso,  352 
Trial  by  jury,  see  Jury 
Tribonian,  129,  132,  142,  148 
Trier,  see  Treves 
Triforium,  420,  424,  431,  433 
Trinity,  97,  124,  379,  413,  428 
Tripoli,  in  Africa,  118,  177 
Tripoli,  County  of,  in  Syria,  318 
Tristan,  407 

Triumphal  arches,  Roman,  32,  435 
Trojan  War,  4 
Troubadours,  238,  403-05,  410,  414- 

15.  444.  594;  "God's,"  450 
Trouveres,  405-06 
Troy,  4,  97,  407 
Troyes,  85,  270,  363-64,  471;  Treaty 

of,  527 
Truce  of  God,  250-51 
Trullan   or   Quin'sext    Council,    195, 

283  note 
Truth,    history     and,     6;     scholastic 

method    of   reaching   the,  381-82; 

St.,  517 
Tschad,  Lake,  184 
Tudor  dynasty,  628-30 
Tunis,  180,  322-23 
Turin,  353 
Turkestan,  55,  549 
Turkey,  558 
Turks,  II,  58,  140,  145,  184,  229,  309- 

II,  314-18,  322,  324,  328,  405,  548, 

574,   583,  591,  623,  635;  and  see 

Ottoman,  Seljuk 
Tuscany,  265,  286,  290,  354-55.  421, 

461,  470,  584,  605 
Tuscan  League,  461,  464 
Twelve  Tables,  30 
Tyrol,  140,  538-39.  568,  616 

Ulfilas,  55,  398 

Ulpian,  30,  69,  122,  142 

Ultramontane,  565 

Umayyad,  see  0mm iad 

Umbria,  461,  464,  605 

Unam  sane  tarn,  505 

Unity  of  the  Church,  102 

Universitas,  390 

Universities,  16,  92,  260,  378,  381, 
389-92,  451,  487,  546,  587, 616;  and 
see  Bologna,  Oxford,  Paris,  Prague 

Unterwalden,  canton  of,  541-42 

Upsala,  University  of,  546 

Ural-Altaian,  see  Altaian 

Ural  Mountains,  12,  17 

Urban  II,  Pope,  311-13,  323,  326,440 

Urban  IV,  470-71 

Urban  VI,  565-67 

Urbino,  580 


Uri,  canton  of,  541 
Usury,  see  Interest 
Utraquists,  569-71,  573 
Utrecht,  167,  365,  543 
Uzzano,  Niccolo  da,  604 

Vaeringjar,  or  Varangians,  224 

Vagabonds,  313-14,  516 

Valais,  542 

Valencia,  188-89,  304,  366,  405,  410, 
488  _ 

Valenciennes,  365 

Valens,  Roman  Emperor,  75-76,  114 

Valentinian  I,  Roman  Emperor,  75-76 

Valentinian  II,  78 

Valentinian  III,  82-83,  85 
Valets,  331 

Valla,  Lorenzo,  593 

Valois,  House  of,  512,  531 
Valvassores,  346 

Vandals,  77,  79,  81;  in  Africa,  83-85, 
91.  93,  96,  III,  chap,  vii;  conquered 
by  Justinian,  128,  135-36;  178,  291, 
398    . 

Varangians,  224 

Varna,  battle  of,  558 

Vasari,  597-98,  603-04,  606,  613 

Vasco  da  Gama,  see  Gama 

Vascones,  272;  and  see  Basques  and 
Gascony 

Vassal,  242-45;  and  see  Feudalism 

Vatican,  227,  565,  574,  607 

Vaulting,  Roman,  32;  at  Padua,  354; 
Romanesque,  420-22;  Gothic,  424- 
26,  429;  Early  English,  430-31;  600 

\'ehm.  Courts  of  the,  534-35,  540 

Venice,  138,  148,  209,  226,  319,  341- 
47,  352-53.  356,  367,  369,  393-94, 
435,  463-66,  470,  553-54,  557-58, 
580-84,  591,  599,  603-04,  607,  611, 
634,  636-37 

Verdun,  Treaty  of,  213 

Vergil,  24,  114,  412-13 

Vermandois,  488,  501,  510 

Verona,  352,  411,  580 

Verrochio,  606 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  610 

Vestments,  movement  against  ecclesi- 
astical, 570 

Vicarii,  71,  141 

Vicars,  577 

Vicenza,  352 

Victor  II,  Pope,  286 

Victor  III,  352 

Victory,  statue  of,  95 

Vienna,  University  of,  390 

Vigilius,  Pope,  133-34 

Vikings,  216,  223,  225,  230,  401 

Villas,  Roman,  33 ;  medieval,  233,  236- 
38,  244-45,  268,  301,  305,  479 

Villehardouin,  409 


INDEX 


68 1 


Villeins,  237,  254,  337,  480,  486,  523- 

24 
Vilna,  552 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  602,  605-06 
Vinland,  223,  230,  395 
Virgate,  235 

Virgin,  the,  624;  and  see  Madonnas 
Visconti,  House  of,  580 
Visconti,  Bianca,  580 
Visconti,  Gian  Galeazzo,  590 
Visconti,  Valentine,  636 
Viscount,  269 
Visigoths,  see  West  Goths 
Vision  of  Piers  the  Ploughman,  516-17, 

562-65 
Vistula  River,  17,  42,  139,  308,  544 
Vita  Nuova,  411,  415 
Viterbo,  464 

"Voices,"  of  Joan  of  Arc,  528 
Volga  River,  17,  58,  549,  556 
Vosges  Mountains,  12,  17,  88,  166 
Voyages  of  Discovery,  394,  609-14, 

633 
Vulgate,  113,  593 

Wager  of  battle,  51,  205,  469,  497 

Wages,  498,  516,  523 

Waiblingen,  350 

Waldensians,  443,  448,  450 

Waldo,  Peter,  443,  450 

Wales,  12,  29,  164,  167,  222,  398,  406, 
484,  487-88,  519;  and  see  Welsh 

Walid,  Caliph,  180. 

Wallace,  Sir  William,  488 

Wallachia,  140,  453,  554,  556,  558 

Walled  towns,  24;  gates,  33;  Rome 
walled  again,  54,  226-27;  barbarian 
invaders,  and,  83,  91,  135,  152,  179; 
medieval,  315,  327,  329-30,  337, 
367-69,  451,  494,  505,  518,  578,  629 

Walloons,  269 

Walsingham,  368 

Walter  of  Brienne,  466 

Walter  the  Penniless,  315 

Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  406 

Wapentake,  221,  478 

Wardship  and  marriage,  243,  257,  277, 
480 

Warfare,  and  history,  2,  5,  9;  and 
geography,  12;  and  citizenship,  26; 
Roman,  28;  among  early  Germans, 
43,  46-47,  127;  of  mounted  nomads, 
57;  early  Christian  opposition  to, 
104;  Mohammedan,  176;  chief  pur- 
suit of  Charlemagne,  199;  feudal, 
249-52,  256,  274;  crusades,  315, 
324;  interurban  in  Italy,  348,  576; 
literature  of,  400,  402;  of  Philip 
Augustus,  493;  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  531;  of  the  Hussites,  570; 
of    the   condottieri,     576-77,     580; 


and  see  Army,  Invasions,  Knights, 

Mercenaries,  Private  War 
Wars  of  Religion,  339,  544 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  614,  628-29 
Warwick,  the  King-Maker,  628 
Welf,  House  of,  349-50 
Welsh  dialect,  398 
Welsh  people,  434,  630 
Wends,  216,  228,  544 
Wenzel,  Holy  Roman  Emperor,  639, 

553,  570 
Wergeld,  47,  52,  123 
Wessex,  Kingdom  of,  220 
West  Franks,  213,  219,  261,  266,  399 
West  Goths,  4,  55,  76-85,  87-90,  in, 

chap,  vii,  128, 138, 149-50, 157, 160, 

169,  178-79,  187,  554 
West  Indies,  610 
Westminster,  476 
Westminster  Abbey,  430 
Westphalia,  534,  539 
West  Prussia,  546 
West  Saxons,  202,  220 
Wettin  dynasty,  540 
Whitby,  Synod  of,  167 
White  Huns,  see  Ephthalites 
White  Sea,  12,  17,  223 
"White  Shirt"  (Greenland),  223 
Widows,  46,  92,  173-74;  feudal,  243, 

270-71,  491;  of  gild  members,  331; 

515 
Widukind,  375 
Will,  see  Langland 
William  I,  or  the  Conqueror,  King  of 

England,  246,  270,  275-77,  292-93, 
,    295,  312,  376,  459,  474,  477-79 
William  1 1,  or  Rufus,  293,  314, 380, 480 
William  V,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  273 
William  VIII,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  272 
William  IX,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  405 
William,  Count  of  Holland,  470 
William  of  Conches,  378-79,  384-85 
William  of  Lorris,  405 
William  of  Roches,  508 
William  of  Rubruk,  393,  452 
Willibrord,  167 
Wills,  52,  294,  460 
Winchester,  368;  cathedral,  423 
Windows,    house-,    339,    369,    388; 

splayed,  422 ;  rose-,  428 ;  lancet,  43 1 ; 

in  Renaissance  buildings,  600;  and 

see  Clear-story,  Stained  glass 
Winfrith,  see  Boniface,  St. 
Wisby,  369,  543 
Wissendi,  534 
Witan,  222,  276 
Witchcraft,  528-29,  534 
Wittelsbach,  House  of,  539 
Woden,  45 
Wolsey,  530 
Woman,  position  of,  in  Roman  law, 


682 


INDEX 


31;  among  early  Germans,  43,  46, 
52;  among  mounted  nomads,  57; 
during  invasions,  82,  92;  monasti- 
cism  and,  112,  154,  166;  Byzantine, 
130-33.  148;  Mohammedan,  175, 
183-84,  320;  in  feudalism,  243,  252- 
53,  286-87,  313;  in  literature,  402- 
406,  409,  415,  588;  in  politics,  457, 
460,  495-96,  512,  525,  527-29.  552- 
53,  586,  618-21,  626,  628,  630-36; 
and  see  names  of  individual  women 

Wood-carving,  427,  433 

Wooden  forts  of  Northmen,  217 

Wool  trade,  366-67,  514 

Worms,  289,  368,  422 

Writing,  see  Alphabet,  Inscriptions, 
Literature,  Manuscripts,  etc. 


Wiirzburg,  167,  368-69 

Wyclif,  John,  663-65,  568-69,  575 

York,  Archbishop  of,  164,  436 
York,  House  of,  618,  628 
Ypres,  365-66,  498 

Zalaca,  battle  of,  303,  312 

Zara,  465 

Zeeland,  616 

Zeno,  Byzantine  Emperor,  86,  108 

Zeus,  62,  69 

Zion,  429 

Ziska,  John,  570 

Zollern,  540 

Zug,  542 

Zurich,  538,  542 


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COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 

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'W>^'?  2  2  1957 


